When Haru Met Makoto
by Die Einzelganger
Summary: Free! UA where Rei was part of the original relay team and Makoto becomes the new fourth member of the Iwatobi Swim Club. Follows the structure of the anime going by the subtitles produced by HorribleSubs, but bases back-story more closely on High Speed! and includes references to the FrFr! specials and drama CD content where appropriate.
1. Episode 01: Part 1

_The water is alive. Once you dive in, it will immediately bare its fangs and attack._

_But there's nothing to fear. Don't resist the water. Thrust your fingers into the surface and carve an opening. Then you slide your body through that opening. Moving your arms, your head, your chest..._

Sixth grader Nanase Haruka launched himself into the air and entered his natural element almost seamlessly, gliding through the water with a sense of carefree elegance that always left his younger peers gawking in awe.

"His swimming always looks so beautiful," sighed Ryuugazaki Rei, having never seen a more graceful form in his ten-year-old life. Nagisa nodded with a grin.

"Yep, like a dolphin!" he said cheerfully, coaxing a soft chuckle out of Rei, who was about to reply when another figure entered his field of vision and drew his attention to the starting blocks, where a boy he had never seen before was busy snapping his goggles into place.

"Who's that, Ryuugazaki-kun?" asked Nagisa, peering at the stranger.

"I don't know," said Rei, looking just as lost as his friend. The older boy paid no attention to either of them, his eyes already fixed on Haruka, and jumped after him with a splash that whipped the water well above the block. The two were soon caught in a heated race, shooting towards the other side like human torpedoes. It was a close call, but in the end, it was Haruka's hand that touched the wall first.

"Your swimming was beautiful, Nanase-senpai!" cried Rei when Haru finally took off his goggles and cap, shaking his hair loose.

"That was so cool, Nanase-kun!" chimed in Nagisa, eyes gleaming with delight. "I wanna swim like you!"

Haru merely hummed and proceeded to clamber out of the pool. They thought the other boy would follow but he chose to linger by the lane rope, flashing a congenial smile at the three of them standing together. Haruka regarded him with a stern expression. Rei and Nagisa were obviously unfamiliar with him, but Haru had seen the boy before at swim meets and now they were in the same class, too. Even without the compulsory introductions on his first day, Haruka would have remembered his name, carved into his memory by sheer annoyance more than anything. Matsuoka… Matsuoka Rin.

"You're still as fast as I remember," Rin began, his eyes now on Haruka. "What was your time?" Haru gave him a look and turned his head slightly away from all of them.

"I don't care about my time," he replied, wondering why this boy had to come bother him. Rin looked baffled but quickly smothered his surprise with a laugh.

"That's just like the rumors said," he continued, climbing out of the pool to properly join them. "Hey, Nanase… You interested in entering a relay with me at the next tournament?" he asked next, his smirk sharp in anticipation, but Haruka's face only became more guarded and he shifted away, looking to the pool for affirmation.

"I only swim freestyle," he replied and then left them behind.

_That's right, I don't care about swimming faster times, _thought Haru as he once again stepped upon the starting block and assumed his stance._ All I want is to feel the water. With my skin, my eyes, my soul... To never doubt what it makes me feel. To believe in myself._

_Don't resist the water. Welcome it. We accept one another._

"Yeah... There was some funky stuff going through my head back then," mused Nanase Haruka five years later, sitting in the bathtub of a large, empty house, his hand reached out in absolute reverie. He tensed his fingers and made a languid grasp at nothing as if to mock that pure, passionate younger self that had fallen through the cracks of time and was lost, perhaps forever.

_There's an old saying my late grandma taught me. When you're ten, they call you a prodigy. When you're fifteen, they call you a genius. Once you hit twenty, you're just an ordinary person._

"About three more years until I'm ordinary." Haru closed his eyes and tilted his head back until he slipped to the bottom of the tub, his breath bubbling away in pearls of air.

_Man... I can't wait to be ordinary._

* * *

Haruka stayed in the water for a long, long time, wishing it would never turn cold enough to threaten him with an actual illness instead of a feigned one. A good hour or so had passed since the start of the opening ceremony at Iwatobi High School, but being an enemy to all boring formalities, he quickly decided to call in sick and successfully exempted himself from attendance. It hardly mattered what class he would be in or who his homeroom teacher would be for the year, anyway – Matsuoka Rin was long gone and Haru had no other friends his own age, having been a solitary creature for as long as he could remember. With no family or peers around to nag him, the bathtub upstairs held an allurement that no amount of grandiose speeches and tedious assemblies could ever hope to contend with.

He measured his time by the darkening shades of his fingernails and tended to draw the line at "obviously purple", at which point the water had become unbearably cold to a body doomed to sitting still. Haru climbed out with little reluctance yet infinite regret, his swimsuit clinging like a second skin that he detested to pick and peel. On it stayed, dried roughly with a towel and Haru left for his bed, lying down in a crumpled heap. His phone lay on the desk and seemed to beep every few minutes with a new message – Haru counted seven until the constant buzzing of vibrate wore off. Someone must have been quite desperate to bother him; that's what every instance of communication felt like on the damn thing. He agreed to have it for emergencies, that was his original condition, but messages could hardly be considered a cause for alarm. _If they had the time to type in all that they could have simply just called._ Haru sighed and pulled the blanket over his head, protesting even the unobtrusive dimness of a room where every blind was drawn, in a vast, empty house where every door was locked.

While the weather was still unfavorable to swim in the ocean, he passed his time doing homework and chores, sitting in the bathtub or wasting away in sleep with little variance to distinguish one day from another, weeks from months, until his life formed into clear-cut patterns of freedom in the water and passive confinement at school and home. Haru did sometimes prop his arms on the windowpane, letting his gaze wander along the white stone stairs to the Misagozaki shrine, but the urge to chase what his eyes could consume in one lazy glance would not come. His sole object of desire remained the water where loneliness transformed into blissful independence and "Why don't you try and make friends?" became "No one I know compares to _this_." And from his soul, it was true – concepts like the 'best friend' or 'soul mate' his peers always talked of in loud and important voices had stayed an intangible myth to Haruka. He doubted that any one person could ever learn to navigate the maze of his mind when he said so little and kept to himself so much; and it seemed like an unreasonable demand to be understood without explanation, to be accepted without any desire to fix him, and to not be entirely forgotten nor reproached whenever he went off to do as he would, which was to simply exist.

And so he existed under the covers for a few hours, neither asleep nor awake, and what eventually roused him was the doorbell, chiming ten times in perfect tempo. _Go away. I don't care. Go away, _he pleaded silently, hands wringing the sheets, butthen the phone started ringing too and Haruka was suddenly obligated to care, bound by his promise to his parents to answer every call and be accountable or else give up "wasting away" in this small town and move in with them as he should have two years ago. He was not ready to leave the ocean, his one constant through seventeen years of solitude. He picked up the phone.

"Hello."

"Haruka-senpai..! Thank goodness. It's Rei, Ryuugazaki Rei? Let us in, Haruka-senpai!"

"…Hn."

Haru had no one but himself to blame. Had he spared one minute to look at the unread messages (twelve in total), he would have realized that Rei, who attended all formal school events without fail and was prone to a certain officiousness had been trying frantically to reach him the moment the opening ceremony had ended to gauge the severity of his pretend illness. Haruka's hand went limp and the phone slipped back onto the desk with a small thud. He sighed and slowly dragged himself to the ground floor to unlock and pull the door open just enough to stick his head outside. It was there that the troublesome discrepancy between "Rei" and "us" was finally resolved in realizing he had two guests instead of one: having failed to contact him, Rei decided to seek the advice of Hazuki Nagisa and they soon agreed that a visit to dispel their apprehensions would probably do no harm.

"You're alive!" Nagisa greeted him, grinning from ear to ear. "Why don't you ever check your phone, Haru-chan?"

"We had been informed by the faculty counselor that you were sick, Haruka-senpai," explained Rei. "So we thought we would check up on you and brought you this…" he continued and Nagisa lifted his bag for Rei to reach inside and produce a food container, holding it out for Haruka to take. "Chicken noodle soup."

"The best remedy of all!" added Nagisa. Haruka stared blankly in response, wondering why no one ever remembered that he preferred mackerel to anything else. The idea annoyed him more than the fact that Rei obviously inquired after him at the assembly.

"Well, aren't you gonna let us in, Haru-chan? It's cold out here, you know..!" whined Nagisa. Haruka's frame was still wedged firmly between themselves and the warmth within, and when he moved to the side at last, he pulled the door open just barely enough for the others to squeeze through. Nagisa promptly slipped past him with the unconcerned ease of a teenager who felt at home anywhere he went, and after a quick bow to his host, Rei followed him right into the living room. Haru himself stood by the door for a moment longer, wondering where he had lost control of the situation and where it might be headed. The soup was still so hot it burned his palm through the plastic. He dragged the door shut.

By the time Haru appeared in the living room, Nagisa and Rei had settled down on the bare floor by the table and were peering up at him as if waiting for or downright expecting something. Haruka's stare was deadpan. Nagisa's smile widened.

"Do you want tea?" offered Haru, obviously reluctant.

"Yes, please, Haru-chan!" chirruped Nagisa.

"If it's not too inconvenient, Haruka-senpai..." said Rei in a low voice.

"…There are pillows in the bottom cabinet," sighed Haruka, disappearing into the kitchen with the container. The familiar creak of cabinet doors sliding on their hinges and the slight shuffle that followed informed him they had found his set of purple pillows that hadn't seen much use in months.

"You really should keep them where we can see them, Haru-chan. It's almost like you don't _like_ guests coming to your house," he heard Nagisa say. _I don't,_ thought Haru, but he pursed his lips and drowned his annoyance in the kettle. Three cups were soon procured from the back of the cupboard and slipped onto a tray along with three bowls and three sets of chopsticks, if only to give the impression that was expected of him. Haruka had no desire to eat, but he figured that such things were better not said out loud. Nagging would inevitably follow and nagging was tiresome.

"Here," he said, setting everything down on the table in easy reach along with the container that had since been opened and a ladle dipped into that luscious swamp of chicken breast and udon noodles. He then pulled out a pillow for himself and joined them, sinking to the floor with his arms folded over his knees. Nagisa immediately took a bowl and filled it to the brim with gleaming eyes. Rei shook his head but said nothing, taking one of the cups.

"You look remarkably well, Haruka-senpai," he began, flashing him a tentative smile. Haru glared at him from behind the wall of his arms.

"I called in sick," he said, his tone defensive and sharp. Rei balked.

"B-but Haruka-senpai, an opening assembly is a compulsory school event—"

"I don't care."

"Calling in sick though just so you wouldn't have to go, _really,_ Haru-chan?" teased Nagisa, though the grin on his face was proof enough that he would have gladly done the same and did not wish to quarrel for long: indeed he was soon too busy stuffing his mouth to attempt anything of the sort.

"You shouldn't neglect your responsibilities as a student, Haruka-senpai," said Rei, and shooting Nagisa a reprimanding glare (mostly for slurping his noodles too loud), he continued to say, "But fear not, Haruka-senpai, the moment I discerned you were not present, I made special care to listen to the announcement for second-year students in your place! You shall be in Class One this year and you will have a new homeroom teacher as well. She has recently transferred to Iwatobi High School to teach classical literature… her name is Amakata Miho-sensei, I believe."

"Fomfing lige dhat," nodded Nagisa, earning another annoyed glance from Rei. He gulped, almost straining his neck to get the better of a piece of chicken he was working on. "But never mind that now, there are more important things to discuss," he carried on and now fixed his eyes intently on Haruka. "Haru-chan, is there a chance we could swim together again? Imagine if we swam in a relay to represent Iwatobi, wouldn't that be great?"

"What are you talking about," replied Haru, his expression guarded. "You don't even attend the same school."

"That's what you think, Haru-chan!" came the cheerful answer, accentuated by a stern cough from Rei.

"Had you attended the opening assembly, Haruka-senpai, you would have noticed that Nagisa-kun has transferred to Iwatobi High School."

"Yep! It was such a bother to be apart from you and Rei-chan for so long – now we get to go to the same school again! Well, what do you say, Haru-chan?"

Haru said nothing at first; his every joint had frozen stiff with discomfort. They had only run into each other a few times since the relay and whenever they did, Haruka seldom talked about himself; for all Nagisa knew, he could have won a dozen tournaments in the past four years… and perhaps he would have, had it not been for that one meeting with Rin over three years ago.

"I quit swimming competitively," he owned, his eyes boring into the floor; no passage of time could prepare him for their looks of disappointment, let alone the verbal avalanche that followed.

"What?!" cried Nagisa, his shock so great he had to set his bowl down. "Why'd you quit? I was all excited about getting to swim with you again in high school!"

"Me too, Haruka-senpai!" joined in Rei, almost pleading. "I spent most of this week reviewing all the latest theories about swimming! Nagisa-kun and I even considered asking you to come with us so we could buy new swimsuits together..!"

"We are not little kids anymore," snapped Haru. "Things aren't the way they used to be."

"Haru-chan…" breathed Nagisa, his voice tender with selfish concern and his eyes large with pleas for a _real_ explanation that Haru felt unable to provide. Having to argue always drained him to the core; if any part of his conduct had ever given him grief it was the demands of others to justify it.

"Haruka-senpai.." began Rei, his voice cautious, "Is there any other reason for your objecting to the idea?"

_Stop prying_, said the way Haru turned his head, his face softening into a blank page as his resistance faded into silent passivity. Rei's fingers curled into an idle fist, the urge to pursue the issue strong and yet slowly crumbling to pieces at that strange distant look in the other's eyes, that veil of resigned sadness neither of them knew how to pierce. He sighed. Nagisa forced a weak smile.

"Come on, Haru-chan..!" he pleaded, lacing hope with easy-going playfulness. "You do like water, don't you?"

"Sure," replied Haru, no longer looking at anyone or anything in particular.

"Well then, let's found a hot springs club instead! What do you say?"

"I am fairly certain that a hot springs club would not be endorsed by any school committee, Nagisa-kun," replied Rei automatically. Nagisa chuckled despite himself.

"You really have no imagination, do you, Rei-chan?"

"_Nagisa-kun..!_"

_After all this time, they are still the same,_ Haruka thought to himself, his heart stale with a dull emptiness that their voices could not reach, a negative space that his friends could not fill. He listened to their affectionate bickering for a while longer, but the more it dragged on, the further Haru had withdrawn into his shell until Rei became keenly conscious of their having overstayed their welcome. He gave Nagisa's side a gentle nudge.

"We'll be leaving now, Haruka-senpai," he said pointedly, rising to his feet. Nagisa blinked but soon followed suit and Haru took it as his cue to fetch the lid of the container from the kitchen.

"No, no, it's fine, Haru-chan..!" protested Nagisa, thrusting the shopping bag at Rei to hide it. "Please eat it, it's yours. Sorry I ate so much of it.."

"That's fine," replied Haru, his voice bland. He dropped the lid on the table and led them to the door, grabbing his keys to unlock it again. Nagisa and Rei slipped out amid hushed goodbyes that Haru returned with a nod, holding the door in obvious wait for the very moment he could close it. Nagisa hesitated.

"You _are_ coming tomorrow, right, Haru-chan?" was his last valiant attempt. Haru paused. As little as he cared about first day attendance, the lie had been exposed – there was no excuse not to go. He gave Nagisa a half-hearted nod that the other barely noticed, grabbing Haru's hand to squeeze it in his. "Promise you'll come! We could meet for lunch…!"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," said Rei, flashing a tentative smile at both of them. "We could meet on the roof – the view is so beautiful and Nagisa-kun would be seeing it for the first time… Would you accompany us, Haruka-senpai?"

Haru pursed his lips in defiance, to no avail – between those childish faces brimming with hope, there was simply no refuge for him.

"Fine," he sighed, closing his eyes in defeat. Nagisa laughed, sounding thoroughly relieved.

"It's settled then! See you tomorrow, Haru-chan!" he cried as he practically skipped down the street in triumph with an exasperated Rei in tow, ignoring his cries of _Wait up, Nagisa-kun…!_

Haru stood there for a while longer as though the drift of those familiar voices had anchored him to the open door, but once even their echoes ebbed away, the sudden absence of life that filled his house for one fleeting moment only to die in the blink of an eye stunned Haru greater still. Silence fell upon Haruka like a blow to the head and he slowly retreated inside, locking the door behind him for good.

The soup had grown lukewarm since but its smell had pervaded the living room so entirely that Haru soon found himself slipping to the floor beside it to gather the container in his arm, chopsticks drawing clump after clump of cooled noodles from the golden liquid and stuffing it inside his mouth with a restless urgency as though the void inside of him had become one resonant scream of hunger.

He ate the whole thing, down to the last strand of udon and the smallest shred of chicken breast, leaving nothing but some residue of broth on the bottom. He furrowed his brow and shoved the container onto the table in shame. _It wasn't even all that great_, he angrily told himself… so why did he eat it all?

By the time Haru crawled back into bed, his too-full stomach felt like molten lead, spreading slowly to his limbs until they grew heavy and dull with entropy. It was the same oppressive emptiness of every night and yet for the first time in a long while, some tiny, deeply buried part of him stirred like a wounded animal, crying out for something Haruka could not even fathom, let alone identify.

He lay awake all night staring at the ceiling. What was he missing?

.

. .

Was it Rin. . .?

* * *

Nagisa may have made a show of being cheerful, but the further they had gotten from the house, the more his steps lost their spring until both he and Rei stopped at the bottom of the stone stairs, looking back with concern and disappointment. Having spent their week-long holiday together (in no small part to get Nagisa away from his sisters) and each indulging to some extent in the possibility of a miraculous transformation from one meeting to the next, they had secretly hoped to find Haruka altered in no significant way except for greater liveliness of manner or at the very least, not as desolate as he appeared in the door, pale and tired and lonesome as ever.

"Rei-chan.. can I come over tonight?" asked Nagisa, his voice low and strange. Rei's face had hardened the more he stared at that small house in the distance, but once he turned his head to look at his friend, Rei's features softened almost instantly.

"You may, Nagisa-kun… but only if you pack and bring your schoolbag. I will not be held responsible for your arriving late to school on your first day!"

Nagisa let out a weak chuckle, eyes gleaming in the light.

"Wonderful, caring Rei-chan," he whispered and it was Rei's turn to laugh – and flush. He shook his head and he and Nagisa began walking towards the nearest train station to take them home, both of them uncharacteristically quiet.

A few hours later, just after dinner, Nagisa donned his school uniform for the first time and gave himself a good look in the mirror, fancying himself the spitting image of a young adult who had things to do and places to be, the place being Rei's apartment nearby and the things to be decided on the spot like always. Nagisa packed his school bag extra carefully not to give Rei any cause for regret, quickly snuck some bread rolls from the kitchen for next day's lunch and then hurried outside, so solemn and out of place in his late evening march that passersby could not help but pause and marvel at such a determined, serious young man. Nagisa's face only brightened once Rei opened the door, already dressed in butterfly pajamas. Nagisa scurried inside, sprawling onto the bed as his backpack landed beside him.

"Thank you, Rei-chan," he said with a grin. Rei shook his head softly.

They stayed up well past their usual time engaged in no more than idle chitchat cautiously circling around its true object that each was reluctant to address and yet hoped to resolve while they were still awake. The conversation was slowly but surely dying, each pause longer than the last until Nagisa forced out a yawn and dropped his head on Rei's shoulder. He took a deep breath to strengthen his resolve – it was now or never.

"Rei-chan… Do you think Haru-chan will keep his promise?"

"A promise is a promise, Nagisa-kun", replied Rei. "I'm sure he will come."

"What do you think happened to him that he doesn't swim competitively anymore?" Nagisa pressed on, unwilling to believe that Haru simply grew up while they themselves had hardly changed.

"I don't know," sighed Rei. "I suppose.. perhaps he lost interest after Rin-senpai left. I don't believe he had been especially competitive before that time, and he seemed to take Rin-senpai's leave very hard."

Nagisa squinted, his heart thumping with faraway echoes of Rin-chan's laugh as he waved goodbye to them and was never seen again.

"I cried when he left," he said, his voice low. "We both did, do you remember? Haru-chan didn't cry at all, but I bet he felt worse than we did. I think Rin-chan was his only friend in class..."

"He's always been alone, it seems," said Rei, his blood running cold. "I should have kept in touch with him better. The last time we met in town I confirmed his address and even asked for his telephone number and yet I hadn't sent him a message or visited him until today…"

"Don't blame yourself, Rei-chan," pleaded Nagisa, giving Rei's arm a squeeze. "Haru-chan doesn't need you.."

"That's not a very nice thing to say," muttered Rei, his brow furrowed. Nagisa blinked.

"I didn't mean it that way! I meant that what Haru-chan needs isn't you or me. What Haru-chan really needs is someone steady in his life!"

"Someone steady…? You mean—"

"Haru-chan needs a soul mate!" cried Nagisa, smacking his fist against the palm of his hand. "He needs to make more friends, especially in class so he would see them everyday. Maybe if he found somebody nice, he would cheer up and swim in a relay again!"

"I think your cause and effect are rather disjointed, Nagisa-kun," replied Rei, unable to resist logical fallacies but then adding with more enthusiasm, "But you are absolutely right. Haruka-senpai needs to broaden his horizons and open up his heart to the beauty of close, intimate companionship. Perhaps… _perhaps…_"

"Perhaps..?" urged Nagisa, his eyes wide.

"Perhaps we could offer our guidance. We may only be his kouhai, but I believe we possess more experience in the field of interpersonal relationships than Haruka-senpai."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" laughed Nagisa. "So it's settled. We'll bug him every day until he makes a friend in class!"

"Not exactly what I had in mind but an acceptable compromise," mused Rei. "Very well, Nagisa-kun – tomorrow we shall commence Operation: Companions for Haruka-senpai!"

"That's the spirit, Rei-chan!" cheered Nagisa, pouncing Rei in a hug that soon had them rolling about in bed. "Don't worry Haru-chan," he cried with glee as Rei flailed around in his grasp, "We'll get you a soul mate if it's the last thing we do…!"

"If you don't get off me, Nagisa-kun, I promise you that this is the last thing _you_ will do!"

"Awww, Rei-chaaan..!"


	2. Episode 01: Part 2

The next morning found Haruka a wreck in the ruins of his scrunched up sheets and tangled duvets. He might as well had slept, for he found no answers in the pale glare of the moon or the sharp rustle of wind-whipped trees; there was no well of wisdom in the deep chasm of his mind. Having wasted several hours of rest on aimless thoughts and lucid dreams, he had just enough time and presence of mind to dress and pack his schoolbag and left without so much as breakfast, let alone lunch to eat on the roof. He was conscious of the first mistake – the obscene grunts of his stomach were hard to ignore – but only realized the second well on his way to high school, and when he arrived, he searched his pockets in vain for his wallet. An empty stomach and the dull throbs of a swelling headache soon darkened even the brightest of prospects and Haruka sank into his seat like a corpse, bracing himself for the inevitable, a normally uneventful first day steadily heading towards disaster.

His classmates were gathering inside one by one, each checking their assigned seats before immediately rejoining their friends again in happy conversation that made Haruka slump in his seat and rest his head in the cradle of his arms. He did not go unnoticed but his attention was not solicited by anyone in particular; a few quiet hellos were answered by little more than slight nods of the head and his former classmates knew him well enough not to bother him any more.

Most of the class had remained the same, which Haruka acknowledged with a sense of complacency, even gratefulness. It was always the unfamiliar faces, the unexpected new arrivals who were dangerous – each and every one could be another Matsuoka Rin, a blooming camaraderie turned betrayal. He only spotted a few this time, most likely transfer students from another school. One of them sat down next to him and greeted him with a smile. Haru nodded to him and then turned his head away towards the window, severing all attempts at communication for the present.

If it hadn't been for a constant volley of sunbeams coming through the window next to him, Haruka's heavy eyelids might have closed for good. His classmates' voices soon became no more than indistinguishable humming to his ears and his every atom longed for nothing more than the release of sleep. He begrudgingly resisted for one reason only: if his homeroom teacher was indeed new, then introductions would be obligatory and nothing annoyed Haruka more than the ambiguity of his name. A sudden death to all conversation alerted him to her arrival – she greeted the class in a soft lilt and then proceeded to the podium, a large dark folder in her arms. She opened it, no doubt to read the student roster, and held it up so close her nose nearly brushed the page. Row call now began from the rightmost row of desks, front to back, to the adjacent row on the left, back to front.

"Takodoro Junichi-kun!"

"Here."

"Tezuka Kaori-san."

"Here!"

Haruka glared in front of himself, trying to ignore the stray glances in his general direction. The guy next to him kept turning his head to each student named as if trying to follow the list and memorize the faces attached to those names. Haruka would soon be next, to be looked at and perhaps laughed at. _Annoying._

"Um…" Hopefully she would look up from the roster…

"Nanase Haruka-san!" _Of course she didn't._

Haruka was used to being mistaken for a girl, but no passage of time could make the hapless giggles of those around him any less irritating. He closed his eyes in displeasure and was about to reply with a quiet _Here_, but before he could, the unthinkable happened: the new student next to him raised his hand to the side with a sense of urgency and cried,

"Sensei! Haruka's a guy!"

Haru's eyes shot open, lifting his head in a look of disbelief. _Who does this guy think he is?_ The once orderly silence dissolved into chuckles and the teacher finally lowered her folder to get a good look at Haruka. She let out a squeak.

"Oh, you're right!" she said, glancing around in search of who had just spoken, but unable to discern the owner of the voice among all those amused faces, she quickly turned her attention back to Haruka, who glared at his desk in contempt. "I'm sorry, Nanase-kun. You were absent yesterday, right? I'm Amakata Miho, your new homeroom teacher. Nice to meet you."

Haru nodded in response, as politely as his foul mood would allow. He resolved not to look, but his face itched to turn and glare at the culprit. _What a meddlesome guy._ The teacher was about to call him and Haruka closed his eyes, eager to commit the name to memory so he would know whom to avoid for the rest of his school career.

"Let's see…" continued Amakata-sensei, lifting up the roster again. "Tachibana Makoto-san!"

The boy's hand shot up again. "Sensei, I'm a guy too!"

There was no helping it: the entire classroom erupted in laughter, and to add insult to injury, Tachibana turned to Haru and whispered, his face amused,

"I'm glad I'm not the only guy with a girly name..!"

Haru ignored Tachibana as best he could for the rest of class, or rather he convincingly pretended to do so, having nothing to take his mind off the offender or his crime. Worse, hunger was slowly but surely getting the better of him: the growls of his stomach became more frequent and just a bit louder each time until he had to start coughing to mask the sound. A cough every few minutes from third period onwards soon turned his throat into a dry pipe and when he raised his fist to his mouth in the middle of fifth period to cough again, nothing came but a hoarse gust of air… and then a cough that wasn't his. It was Tachibana, his fist raised to his mouth, and when danger was over, he turned slightly to flash Haru a smile. He cocked his head slightly to the side, his upturned eyebrows peaceful arches and his lips curling in happy contentment that seemed to light up his entire face. Haruka had never seen a smile that radiant or warm – more than warm, it was scorching, hot enough to sear his own cheeks a light pink in embarrassment. He quickly took his eyes off Tachibana and fixed them on his text book, having quite forgotten what the teacher was even talking about. A sudden stab of pain to his stomach forced his hand to sink down and press to his abdomen and another roar came, drowned out by Tachibana's second cough. Haru's eyes grew larger.

_He wants something from me,_ came the alarming thought. _What does he want? What an awful, meddlesome guy. Who asked him to do any of this? Who does he think he is?_

When Haru's stomach growled again, he quickly drew his fist to his lips in defiance but Tachibana was faster. Haru's hand clenched tightly for one moment more and then dropped into his lap in defeat. It was no use. Tachibana carried on in his place for the rest of class.

* * *

Fifth period ended. Lunch break. Haruka was finally free to escape.

Perhaps he would have, had he anything to eat, but just the thought of climbing all those stairs only to watch Nagisa stuff his face felt like too much effort. Lack of sleep chipped away at his will one painful throb at a time and anchored Haru to his desk, turning his limbs to lead. Everyone else was either leaving or sitting down to unpack their bentos and surely enough Tachibana took out his, handsomely wrapped in an orange furoshiki. How proper, how inviting it looked, and oh, how it sickened Haruka to the core of his being. He lowered his head not to stare as the box was uncovered and its lid lifted.

"It's lunch break," spoke Tachibana, eyeing Haru with a concerned look. "You can eat now, Nanase-kun. You brought lunch, right?"

Haru clenched his jaw. He pushed back his chair and rose, his hands curling into fists.

"What do you want from me?" he rasped, refusing to look the other in the eye when he realized how hoarse his voice had grown from straining his throat so much.

"Huh..?"

_Stop talking to him, this guy is dangerous, he is even worse than Rin, just ignore him and go,_ rang the alarm in Haruka's head, but any filter he normally hid behind was failing him at such obviously feigned innocence. His stomach churned with a roar of anguish.

"Why are you bothering me?" he demanded, finally turning to look at Tachibana, "Why don't you just leave me—"

"Here," said Tachibana, holding out what appeared to be a sandwich wrapped in foil. Haru froze, his lips still parted, but no sound came – even the original utterance had been wiped clean from his mind. His hand twitched up instinctively and by the time he stringed together a weak refusal in his head, he was already holding the parcel, past the point of no-return. "It's not much, but it should tide you over until you get home."

Haruka was too stunned to reply, but the gleam of his eye and the apparent lack of reproach were met with another smile, a simple, humble one that spoke of wanting nothing, not even a thank you.

"See you later, Nanase-kun," said Tachibana, and with a last glance, he and his bento disappeared, no doubt to explore the school for an agreeable place to eat what remained. Haru stared after him dumbfounded until his stomach growled again and caused him to glance down at the sandwich. He had food now and no more excuses not to go, and so to the roof he went, furrowing his brow all the way in shame and discomfort.

He half expected, half dreaded Tachibana also choosing the roof, but when Haru finally appeared in the door, the only familiar faces around were Rei and Nagisa by the railing.

"Haru-chan, Haru-chan! Over here!" cried Nagisa, waving frantically. Haru tensed his shoulders and walked over quickly, passing a couple of girls by the wall. One of them peered after him. He didn't notice.

"You finally showed up, Haruka-senpai..!" sighed Rei in relief. He adjusted his glasses with a finger and added, "I could just barely dissuade Nagisa-kun from eating lunch without you."

"That was unnecessary," replied Haru, his voice breaking up like a bad signal.

"You sound terrible, Haruka-senpai," said Rei, now rather confused about the state of his friend's health. Haru offered no explanation beyond the shrug of his shoulders. Nagisa grinned, eyeing the parcel in his hand.

"What did you bring, Haru-chan?"

"Nothing."

"Then what's that?" pointed Nagisa. Haru made a face and turned his head.

"I don't know. I didn't bring it." He sighed. No amount of roundabout explanations would suffice with someone as nosy as Nagisa. "Someone gave it to me."

"Eh?! Someone gave you their lunch? Luckyyy..!"

"Haruka-senpai…" breathed Rei. "Does this mean that you… have made a_ companionship..?_"

Haru glared at Rei, twisting his head sharply away, but he could still feel their hungry gazes behind the tight veils of his eyelids, forced to lean backwards as they eagerly loomed forward.

"Come on, Haru-chan, tell us!"

"Talk to us, Haruka-senpai!"

"Is it a girl or a boy?"

"Are they respectable?"

"Bet they are really sweet..!"

"Say something, Haruka-senpai—"

"If you don't stop bothering me, you can eat by yourselves," snapped Haruka, his eyes flashing. Nagisa whined in disappointment and even Rei allowed himself to openly pout at being denied any disclosure, but Haru proved immovable – in spirit at least. He had taken a few steps away from them and settled by the railing, turning the foil-covered parcel in his hands.

Nagisa and Rei scooted beside him, unwrapping their bentos under the rails, and soon all three of them were leaning against the wall, free to stare at the pink clouds of cherry trees in the distance. Once his friends had begun eating, Haru finally let himself join in and began peeling the foil off the top corner of the sandwich. He entertained no hopes of it being the least bit edible – if fate had deemed it fit to taunt him thus far, there was every reason to expect something disgusting inside, but upon unwrapping a good portion of it, Haruka found that everything within looked fresh and inviting, and one small bite confirmed that there was indeed some justice left in this world. He took a larger bite next, then another, and as he did, irritation and bitterness slowly crumbled away from him like wind-blown petals from those distant cherry trees. No strong emotion replaced them; what came instead was a sense of calm contentment that flowed through Haruka in waves, strange and new and almost disturbing in how easily it lulled him into standing still, eyes absent and body relaxed.

Rei and Nagisa noticed it, too: the overall effect was so becoming, so unaffected compared to the way Haruka usually stood, eyes cold and eternally bracing himself against others that they could not help but marvel at him between sips of water and hurried mouthfuls of rice and bread. Only once he caught them staring did the enchantment break and Haru revert to his former defensive state, turning his head sharply away from the others who quickly exchanged meaningful glances, looking forward to discussing these exciting developments after school (with sixth period affording both of them some time to engage in vivid guesswork about Haru's newfound "friend", who unbeknownst to every party present was having lunch on a sunlit patch of grass just on the other side of the building, in plain view from the roof). Haru pocketed the remains of the tinfoil, his friends gathered their lunchboxes and they all turned to leave, passing the girl who had been looking at them without any of them noticing her.

* * *

There were a million things Nagisa wanted to ask, his head buzzing with questions about Haru's mysterious benefactor, the sudden change of his voice and the pool he had seen from the roof, empty and forsaken except for the cherry trees around it. It seemed to belong to the school grounds and he made a mental note to ask Rei about it later – he was ready to seize upon any incentive for Haruka to join them. It had to wait though. There was one issue where speed was of the essence and the last few minutes of their lunch break seemed like the most favorable time to launch an attack.

"Hey, have you heard? The swimming club we went to in grade school is gonna be torn down soon," he began, skipping down the stairs gleefully and jumping from the last few steps to the landing. "So before that happens, why don't we pay a visit?"

"Do you mean… to dig up the capsule?" replied Rei, still standing by the door.

"Exactly! We can sneak in at night…" Nagisa carried on, imitating the quiet stalk of some midnight creature, no doubt. He had given Haru pause, unleashed the wisps of the past that tugged at him with a weight he still hadn't shaken loose, but Haru resisted; to heed the calls of his memories, to let his curiosity (or worse, his nostalgia) get the better of him would have been foolish and troublesome.

"You can go by yourselves," he said, fixing his eyes on the opposite wall as he began his descent down the stairs, expression as nonchalant as years of practice afforded.

"Don't say that!" cried Nagisa, quickly moving to block his path. "Come with us, Haru-chan!"

"I'm not going."

"Don't you think it'll be fun?"

"I don't."

"With all due respect, Haruka-senpai, Nagisa-kun does have a point," mused Rei, his brow creasing in contemplation. "It _is_ an act of trespassing and I would normally disapprove of it, but I believe we may safely consider the capsule our rightful property and shouldn't leave it there to be destroyed."

"I'm not going! It's too much effort," was Haru's only reply, twisting his head sharply away.

Nagisa seemed to waver in the face of such hard obduracy, but only for a moment: a surge of longing for adventure, to reminisce one more time before their past would be torn from the ground turned his welling disappointment into a spirit of unyielding fervor.

"Fine, Haru-chan, just sit in your house all alone while Rei-chan and I go by ourselves!" he snapped, advancing further and further upward until he backed Haruka all the way into a corner by the door that led directly to the roof. "Bury your head in the sand while we go see the pool and the backyard and claim our prize, but let me tell you, I'm warning you Haru-chan, if you don't come with us tonight, you will regret it for the rest of your life! Is that what you want, Haru-chan, do you want to live in constant regret?!"

There was no escape for Haruka, not even enough space to turn his head away, and tilting his chin upward until the top of his head bonked against the wall was just as useless as resistance generally turned out to be against someone as full of life and will as Nagisa. All Haru could do in this sad state, utterly convinced that he would never hear the end of it if he did not go, was sigh as painfully as possible and reply,

"I will check out the pool. That's all."

"I knew you would, Haru-chan!" cried Nagisa in triumph, throwing himself at Haruka in an affectionate bear hug. Rei, an advocate of more subtle techniques, merely shook his head.

"I believe we will need a spade, Nagisa-kun," was all he permitted himself to say, confident that everything else was now taking its proper course.

"Leave it to Haru-chan!" replied Nagisa without missing a beat. "His house has a garden so he must have a spade, too!"

"That makes sense," said Rei. Haru glared at them to no effect. "Let's meet this evening then, after dinner?"

"Seven at Haru-chan's house! I can't wait!" chirped Nagisa, bounding down the stairs with obvious satisfaction. Rei hurried after him to make sure he didn't trip and fall in his enthusiastic dash downstairs and Haruka followed them with lurching steps, thoroughly exhausted by the whole affair.

* * *

Glad as Haru was to escape Nagisa and Rei (with company, he had always found that a little went a long, _long_ way), he returned to class with a great deal of reluctance, all of it pertaining to Tachibana Makoto. He tossed the crumpled foil into a trashcan on his way and was now completely rid of evidence except for the satisfied silence of his stomach, but the gesture obviously did not die with its consumed object. The giver had to be dealt with and dealt with definitively as to prevent any future instances of unsolicited charity… but how? The situation seemed like a dangerous Catch 22. Were he to thank him, perhaps Tachibana would regard him as a grateful recipient on whom he might lavish more unwanted attention, which was no good; but ignoring him and potentially provoking him to do something on a grander scale to be noticed would have been equally bothersome. As to scolding him when Haru did eat the sandwich and absorbed all its benefits, it seemed wholly out of the question for more reasons than the obvious. The Rin he remembered always had a certain air of wildness about him, lively and sharp and dangerous – and as easily as Haru could suspect him, he had a harder time imputing hidden motives to Tachibana. Haruka's feet had since carried him to the classroom and he paused by the door, peering inside carefully, and there sat the source of all his current troubles, feet tucked under his chair and arms resting on his desk waiting patiently for the next class to begin. He looked like an overgrown child with those large, drooping eyes and upturned eyebrows, his expression so soft and artless as to render him no more threatening than a large puppy dog (though amiable as puppy dogs were, one would still find them annoying in large doses). Haru sighed. The class was large and Tachibana seemed good-nature itself. _He'll find new friends soon enough._

Having reached that conclusion, Haruka entered the classroom and slowly made his way between the rows of desks to his own spot in the far corner. Tachibana noticed him and flashed him a smile that Haru failed to return, giving him only the smallest nod as he sat down.

"Was it okay, Nanase-kun?" asked Tachibana almost immediately. Haru tensed, but soon gave him a small hum in reply.

"Good. I'm glad."

Haru risked a glance at him but found no condescension in Tachibana's tone or the open, honest arches of his face; if he didn't know better, he might have supposed him to be caring and kind to anyone, even strangers. But that seemed improbable, highly improbable. He must have simply been the sort of person that just said whatever was on their mind at the time and sometimes ended up sounding like he genuinely cared even when there was little to no foundation for such feelings. Haru slowly turned his head toward the window, unsure if he could carry the conversation much further without annoyance when he was unable to dismiss what seemed like an earnest display of concern for his wellbeing._ It's probably because he's new here. He's trying too hard._ It was safest to leave it at that; any considerations of deeper feelings than that of superficial politeness would have been to invest too much hope in Tachibana's character, and Haru was adamant not to be disappointed again.

The rest of class was uneventful: there was no more need to cough, Haru's headache was dissipating and he had taken great pains to carefully keep his eyes away from Tachibana. This was Haruka's last refuge in any scenario – if the problem could not be solved, it was to be ignored, and unlike Rin or Nagisa who pursued relentlessly after him, Tachibana mounted no attacks beyond a few short glances that Haruka stubbornly refused to acknowledge. He reserved all his energies for the last battle, the end of the school day where suggestions like walking home together might be raised and had to be curtly and definitively turned down before the other could latch and sink his hooks too deep.

The bell rang, class was officially dismissed and sure enough, Tachibana turned to him, but Haru kept his eyes firmly on his books that he ended up shoving into his backpack. The other paused; Haruka finished. He stood and pulled the backpack over his shoulder.

"See you tomorrow, Nanase-kun," said Tachibana in a soft tone, evidently bested in this round.

"Bye," replied Haruka, proceeding outside.

Their exchange was exactly as it ought to be: undemanding, unpromising, unthreatening. Tachibana did not move from his desk to follow him, and yet Haru's steps were getting quicker every second, hurrying past idling high-schoolers and jogging all the way to the bicycle rack. He grabbed his bike and mounted it at once, raising a cloud of dust as he swiveled towards the gate, and he didn't stop until he reached the unconquerable stone steps that led to his house uphill. It was quite a climb and by the time he reached the top, his lungs were threatening to collapse, no longer so used to exercise. He dragged himself inside the house and collapsed unceremoniously in the entrance hall, holding his aching side and scolding himself silently for the cowardly stunt. There was no reason to suppose Tachibana lived anywhere along his usual route if he hadn't met him until today, but trusting fate so blindly as to chance even one unwanted meeting was inviting trouble that was already scratching at the threshold of his small, vulnerable world. Little remained untouched within his walls, but that precious little had to be protected, and so Haru resigned himself to the idea that he might have to run home every single day for the rest of his high school days. His mouth twisted in resentment. If every day was now doomed to be just like the first, he would be in great danger of hating Tachibana for inheriting the sins and stigmas of a former transfer student he had never even met.


	3. Episode 01: Part 3

As the sun began its inevitable descent beyond the horizon, Haruka started to prepare for the upcoming venture. Nagisa guessed correctly: he did find an spade in the backyard shed, old but clean and serviceable, and so it wound up in the entrance hall for the time being, abandoned by the shoe cupboard as Haruka left for the kitchen. He raided the cooler, donned an old threadbare apron (once worn by his late grandmother) and fried a couple fillets of mackerel for dinner, his consolation prize after all the indignities he had suffered, the only comfort he could truly call constant. It could not turn back time, but it could soothe; that was enough.

The bell rang just as he had finished and Haru rose from his empty plate, still irritated that Nagisa insisted on his house as their meeting point. They could have just gone straight to the old swim club – it would have the logical, reasonable thing to do. Haru smelled a conspiracy brewing: it felt no different from having been accompanied on runs when he was younger, obliged to adjust his pace to the little ones gasping for air behind him. The door was slowly unlocked and slid open just enough for Haruka to poke out his head, keeping his expression guarded. Nagisa and Rei had since exchanged their school uniforms for casual clothes, but Rei retained his backpack, firmly strapped into place. Nagisa appeared to be empty-handed; Haru suspected that Rei was carrying whatever contributions his friend decided to make.

"Hey, Haru-chan!" Nagisa greeted him, sniffing the air. "What smells so good?"

"Mackerel."

"Aah, delicious! Haru-chan was always a good cook. Is there any more?"

_Bottomless stomach. _"I ate it."

"Aww…"

"Good evening, Haruka-senpai," said Rei with a small nod of the head. "Did you manage to find a spade?"

"Yeah."

Haruka quickly stepped inside, grabbed the handle and let himself out, locking the door before anyone could suggest tea or needless idling about. Nagisa's face scrunched up in a pout when his chance for second dinner slipped away, but he perked up the very moment he spotted the spade. He quickly grabbed it out of Haru's hand, lifting it like a hero thrusting their weapon at the sky.

"Now, onward to adventure!" he cried happily, shoving the spade into Rei's hands once his war cry was over. Rei sighed and took it with all the dignity of the designated pack mule, his brow creasing in thought.

"Are you sure this is really a good idea, Nagisa-kun?" he said cautiously, lowering the spade by his side. Nagisa blinked.

"Weren't you all for it earlier, Rei-chan? Don't tell me you are getting scared..!"

"Of course not! Fear is unbecoming!" snapped Rei, straightening his shoulders to appear better composed than he felt. "What I mean is… is this really the best way to do it? Three is such an ominous number – it is incomplete. Symbolically speaking, four is the number of perfection, of the complete whole… three is just not beautiful."

"Well, we can't do anything about that now… Rin-chan isn't in Japan anymore."

Haruka's gaze drifted into space. Why did he keep thinking about Rin…?

"_I won't be attending middle school here."_

_Rin's words, so casually and whimsically uttered under the brick-trapped cherry tree felt like a slap in the face and Haru's eyes widened as he quickly turned to look at the other boy, his features tense in anger. They were alone in the yard; everyone else had gone home by then. There was no one to interrupt and hijack the conversation, no one to question how Rin had the audacity to speak so calmly about leaving them, leaving _him_ behind._

"_What are you talking about?" Haru asked when the silence could be held no longer._

"_I'm going to Australia," replied Rin, arms raised and hands cupping the back of his head, his eyes on the cherry tree. "I sent in my application and the results came in yesterday. I'm going to go to a swimming school."_

_Haru glared at him and then turned away in a flash of gritted teeth, his own eyes falling to the bricks they had molded with their own hands in art class and left their mottos written upon it with paint. His read 'Free' and Rin's was marked 'For the Team', very appropriate at the time it was written, but now that cheerful message was just another stab in the back. Being a team, swimming a medley relay together was all Rin ever talked about as though standing on his own held no value compared to the camaraderie of his peers – _what a joke_. Haru shouldn't have gotten involved with him; he should have heeded the warning signs and realized that the idea of someone who was earnest and enduring in all their engagements was too good to be true. _What are you trying to do? Just how selfish can you get, you jerk?_ he thought to himself, his fists clenched._

_"I'm going to study swimming there to become an Olympic swimmer," declared Rin with the glowing self-confidence twelve-year-olds so safely boasted before the first waves of life's harder challenges would wash them ashore. Haruka immediately thought of kids telling adults how they would be astronauts or the president when they grew up. _What a stupid thing to say, _he thought to himself, uselessly wishing he were elsewhere, anywhere but alone in the yard with this incomprehensible jerk._

"_What about the relay?" he forced himself to ask, getting nasty ideas in his head. Rin shrugged and sank his hands into his pockets, taking a few steps towards the gate._

"_I'll swim in the relay. I'm leaving the day after the tournament. So… this will be the last time the four of us swim together."_

_Haru's face hardened, his jaws clenched not to twitch, not to writhe in bitterness at having been nothing but a mere pawn in Rin's game. As surely as he teased and coaxed Nagisa and Rei along, exploiting the little ones' eagerness to swim with real "legends", he had strung up Haruka with wires that would soon be severed as the puppeteer retired from the stage – and what then? Would Haru have to drag the dead remains of his hold for the rest of his life?_

"_I only swim freestyle," said Haruka in defiance, but Rin didn't seem to catch his meaning. He reached out his hand and caught a few leaves midair, closing his fingers upon them._

"_That's why you have to swim in the relay. This is our last chance," came the answer and Rin turned back to Haru, his look determined. "Let's swim together, Nanase – the alpha and the omega. If you swim with me," he continued with a smile, and Haruka was drawn to look him in the eye despite himself, "I'll show you a sight you've never seen before!"_

* * *

Night soon fell upon them and the desolate ruins of their former swim club, the moon painting ominous shadows in the cracks of a dozen broken windows. Sun and rain had left their marks on the once bright and happy front mural of a swimming boy, smearing its eyes and mouth until they ran dark and grotesque, doomed to laugh and cry blood till the end of its days. Rei took one look at it and his hands tightened on the spade, holding it in front of himself like a ward. Even Nagisa's face seemed stern and solemn as he walked around Rei to unzip his backpack.

"How could they let it fall into such a sad state," whispered Rei, unable to raise his voice. "It looks absolutely disgraceful…"

Nagisa found what he was looking for and took out a bundle, untying the knot to reveal a small pile of white powder.

"Here, just in case," he said, holding it out. "Purifying salt."

"Purifying salt…?" echoed Rei. "Why on earth—"

"They say the place is haunted," replied Nagisa, staring up at the building.

"Stop talking nonsense, Nagisa-kun…" muttered Rei, his skin breaking out in goose bumps.

"I'm not lying," insisted Nagisa, turning to look him dead in the eye. Rei let out a yelp. "People have been seeing shadows moving around and hearing sobbing voices," explained Nagisa, the tone of his voice needlessly dramatic. He always had a penchant for cheap thrills and cheesy horror movies, and the abandoned swimming club seemed like the perfect setting, their very own haunted mansion. Rei shuddered.

"Stand still, Rei-chan," said Nagisa, tossing white dust at Rei from several angles. "Okay, you're next, Haru-chan," he continued, giving Haruka the same treatment. Some of the fine powder found its way into Haru's mouth. His eyes went wide.

"Hey," he said, gathering a few flecks on his finger to taste.

"What is it, Haruka-senpai..?" asked Rei, clutching the spade just a little harder.

"This isn't salt. It's sugar," came the calm reply. Nagisa's eye twitched and Rei let out a cry of anguish, dusting himself vigorously and scattering sugar everywhere.

"Is that why you went to the kitchen, Nagisa-kun? How many times do I have to tell you that salt is on the left and sugar is on the right?!"

"You can't expect me to remember everything!" whined Nagisa, staring at his empty handkerchief in disappointment. "But it's all mental anyway, so sugar will still get the job done."

"Clichéd as hell," muttered Haru.

"Never mind that, Haru-chan..!" said Nagisa, stuffing the handkerchief right back inside Rei's backpack and digging out a large flashlight. "Let's go in, shall we?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you, Nagisa-kun…" grumbled Rei. He received no reply.

It was easy enough to find their way inside; the front door appeared loose as though it had already been pried open before them. Haru held it for the others, being the only one empty-handed by then and Nagisa switched on the flashlight, entering first as their unofficial tour guide. They stepped into a barren lobby, the air stagnant and everything dead except a handful of teenagers creeping down the main hall with silent, careful steps. The wind picked up outside and the building sighed with aching creaks, drawing ragged breaths through shattered glass.

"This is eerie…" groaned Rei, keeping as close to the others as possible while his eyes wandered all around, imagining danger in every corner. "Do you think anyone has been here since—" he continued to say when a sharp rattle startled him into swinging his spade upward with a loud "AAAHH!"

"Oops.. sorry, Rei-chan," said Nagisa, scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile bathed in the pale glare of his flashlight. "My foot hit an empty can."

"Are doing this on purpose, Nagisa-kun?!" snapped Rei, wagging the spade menacingly.

"Are you scared of the dark..?"

"_I am not!_"

"Can we go on?" came Haru's voice, placid as ever.

"Sorry, Haru-chan… Follow me!" said Nagisa and they carried on, completely oblivious of the shadow looming just beyond the corner behind them.

* * *

"This brings back memories," breathed Nagisa as the flashlight's blaze fell on rows of pink and blue lockers gaping emptily at the dog-eared mats on the floor. Past the cheerful dolphin and crab painted on their blocks were the showers, mostly intact save for a few missing ceramic tiles and a thick, pervasive coat of dust.

"It's not as terrible inside as I expected," said Rei, sounding relieved. Derelict as these showers looked, he embraced them with tender nostalgia – how often had he used to come in here himself, always choosing the shower by the innermost wall so he could safely store his glasses on the windowpane? How often had he and Nagisa dried their hair by the row of white sinks, Nagisa so small he could easily use the hand dryer for the top of his head? The memory made him lift a hand to hide his grin.

"What is it, Rei-chan?" asked Nagisa. Rei pursed his lips.

"Nothing, Nagisa-kun.. Let's move on."

"Okay," came the swift reply and Nagisa tried another door. "Wait… this is..."

"The lounge," said Rei just behind him. The center of the room was empty with overturned benches on all sides and more cracked, gaping windows as though a scuffle had taken place and only its sad aftermath remained… but not quite. There, just on the opposite wall hung pictures in dusty frames, an almost complete set judging by a darker patch of wall by a cluster of what must have been eight photographs instead of seven. Nagisa immediately ran over to check them, and next to that dark patch of wall, he found treasure.

"Hurry up!" he cried for the others, pointing proudly to a photograph where four boys stood side by side in swim briefs and gold medals, posing with their prize. A black-haired boy was looking poutily to the side, held in place by a laughing boy with red hair and a trophy as long as his torso. Beside him stood two more boys, blond and blue, their fists raised in the air as though they were playfully mirroring each other. "This is the picture from when we won the relay..."

Haru fixed his eyes on those boys and his heart gave a leap, tearing past the frozen veil of his memories and racing down to that legendary starting block where Rin had become the alpha and he was the omega, the beginning and the end, backstroke and crawl. _There he stood in his white cap and tinted goggles, his young body tense as he waited for Rei's butterfly to reach the wall. Rei's hands smacked against it and Haru flew into the air, carried on the wings of Rin's voice as he screamed Haruka's name in ecstasy._

"_I'll show you a sight you've never seen before,"_ _he said to Haruka under that cherry tree, and when the water embraced him, there was a burst of energy, propelling him forward as though the water had come alive._

_The trophy they had won was enormous and handsome. Any one of them would have been glad to take it home – but Rin had a different idea._

"_The four of us won this together, so it doesn't make sense for one person to take it home," he explained as he dug a hole in the backyard of the swim club, placing the trophy into the hollow pit in a large cookie tin. "So let's put it in a time capsule and dig it up when we're grown up," he continued, pressing the lid down firmly. Nagisa and Rei looked perfectly happy with the decision. Haru showed no emotion, and perhaps that was why Rin turned to him directly, positively beaming._

"_Romantic, right?" he said with a toothy grin. Haru gave a small _"hmph" _and turned his head, his only means of resistance in the face of a boy who had wrapped them around his finger with his dramatic notions and self-absorbed charm, an incomprehensible, selfish jerk whose suitcase was already packed at home. _Just go,_ thought Haru then, the warmth of their friendship growing colder with every minute of Rin's cheerful dissembling. _I hope you never come back again.

"_Haruka-senpai…"_

"Haruka-senpai."

Haru blinked. Nagisa and Rei were already by the door, looking back at him with surprise and concern.

"Let's go, Haruka-senpai."

"Yeah..." sighed Haruka, leaving those picture-perfect boys behind.

* * *

"Think the marker is still there?" asked Nagisa as they passed another corridor, his eyes always eagerly fixed straight ahead. Haruka followed him without the slightest hint of interest in his surroundings and Rei trailed behind, peering down every hall they came across just to be safe— and was spooked by a dark figure looming in the far end that began moving towards them at a slow, steady pace.

"Gah! Who's there..?" he called out, just barely suppressing the shake of his voice. He quickly swung the spade in front of himself, brandishing it like a spear. "Don't come any closer! _I have a weapon!_"

"What's wrong, Rei-chan?" Nagisa hurried over, dragging Haru along with him. The figure was still advancing in a casual stride, eyes boring into Haruka's in a clash of red and blue. Haru froze. The stranger stopped.

"_Yo,_" he called out, tugging the visor of his baseball cap downwards.

"Who is it?" whispered Nagisa, turning to the others.

"I have no idea," said Rei, still holding up the spade in self-defense. Haru was silent.

"I didn't think I'd run into you guys here," came that voice again as the stranger hooked one finger into the belt of his cap to snap it like one would tighten a pair of goggles. Nagisa and Rei gasped in unison, their shock complete when the baseball cap was removed to uncover longish red hair just as they remembered.

"Rin-senpai!" "Rin-chan!" they cried at the same time, surprised and overjoyed at a long-lost friend whose face betrayed no tender feelings for them. If anything, he looked as bored and glum as his dark clothes; nothing like the grinning, willful brat Haruka remembered. Blissfully oblivious of how unwanted they were, Nagisa lunged forward to grasp Rin's arm. "You're back from Australia!"

"This is quite unexpected… What brings you here, Rin-senpai?" asked Rei, finally lowering the spade.

"It must be fate!" replied Nagisa, obviously delighted with himself for having arranged their visit so fortunately. "Some unseen force brought us all here at this exact—"

"_Haru,_" Rin interrupted him, staring right through the others at his childhood rival. "You're still hanging out with these guys? …You never learn."

Nagisa's eyebrows creased, his happiness popping like a balloon. Haruka's face remained expressionless. Rei's darkened.

"Rin-senpai.. what do you mean by that?"

"What about you?" spoke Haru a moment later, silencing them again. He closed his eyes, censoring the provocative look on Rin's face that sent tremors down his legs and made them feel so frail they threatened to snap and crumble from under him. "Have _you_ learned anything?"

"Haruka-senpai…" breathed Rei, not liking where the conversation was headed.

"I'm glad you asked," said Rin, nodding left and right to loosen the stiff joints of his neck. "Why don't I show you? Let's race, Haru." And just like that, Rin started walking down the corridor he knew was leading to the pool.

"Did you say race?" asked Rei, and before he could finish, Haru had begun to follow Rin as though he were hypnotized, paying no heed to the others anymore. "Haruka-senpai! _Haruka-senpai!_"

"Did they just ditch us?" said Nagisa, sounding stunned.

"It would appear so," growled Rei, his hands on his hips and the spade sticking out to the side. The two exchanged glances. Their decision was instant.

"_Wait for us!_"

* * *

When Nagisa and Rei finally caught the others by the pool, Rin was already tearing off his shirt, tossing it to the ground in one fluid motion.

"I'll show you how different we are now," he said in a dark tone, staring intently at the other as Haru stripped and threw his own shirt away.

"Go ahead," was the curt reply, the tone no less challenging.

"They're going to swim here?" said Nagisa, thoroughly confused. Rei paused for a moment as the pieces clicked and then balked, nearly dropping his spade.

"Wait, Haruka-senpai! You can't swim in there!" Haru didn't even hear him; the next moment, his trousers dropped to the floor and Rei whipped up the spade to shield his eyes, only risking a peek once Nagisa began nudging him in the side. The peek turned into a baffled stare. "Wh-what…? Was Haruka-senpai wearing his swimsuit instead of underwear all along? I don't understand!"

"And Rin-chan, too!" Nagisa pointed out, watching Rin stretch in a black and red legskin that seemed transparent by the inner thighs; Haru's black and purple jammers looked almost modest in comparison. Rin bounced upward and now they stood facing each other, their naked chests gleaming in the dim light.

"We have to stop them!" pleaded Rei.

"Do we really?"

"_Nagisa-kun..!_"

They were too late. The race had already begun, both pacing slowly towards the pool, not taking their eyes off each other for a moment as they picked up speed in a dash towards the starting blocks.

"Let's do this, Haru!" growled Rin, snapping his goggles into place. They conquered the starting blocks, bodies arched fiercely, tensing to the sound of "Ready, go—"

Had they let the roar of their blood carry them away, they might have hurled themselves towards a sad, untimely death. Nothing lay beyond the starting blocks but dry concrete a few meters below, the abandoned pool yawning with a surreal emptiness that stunned them frozen on the plateaus of their blocks. Nagisa turned on his flashlight and frightened a small mouse that scurried off towards the drains.

"There isn't any water," he noted with an amused smile. Rei pushed up his glasses, his hand twitching with frazzled nerves.

"Of course there isn't any water in the pool of an abandoned building!" he snapped, looking exasperated. "Who in their right mind would suppose otherwise?!"

"Tch. _Lame,_" said Rin as he jumped off the starting block. Haruka remained where he stood for a moment longer, shoulders slack in disappointment. Rei was right – what did he expect? Why was he even here..?

His business finished before it had even begun, Rin now headed towards the exit. Behind him, Haru finally stepped off the starting block, the others gathering by his side. Rin stopped.

"Oh yeah," came his voice and the next moment, a flash – it was the trophy they had come to reclaim from the earth. Rin tossed it into the air and caught it again as thought he were dangling a chew toy to a pack of hungry dogs. "Did you guys come here for this?"

"Our trophy!" gasped Nagisa, looking alarmed.

"I don't need this thing any more," said Rin, taking another step forward. His arm curled backwards and the trophy dropped to the floor, too quickly for any of them to even try and catch it. Rin walked on without another glance and darkness soon swallowed him whole as though he had never been there.

"Rin-chan..." whispered Nagisa, not taking his eyes off the door as Rei walked over to pick up their prize, cradling it gently in his arm. "He's changed…"

Haruka stood frozen, eyes wide open, desperately wanting to wake up.

* * *

"I don't want to be here anymore," said Rei, tightening his hold on the trophy. Nagisa nodded.

"This way!" he called out, motioning to the hallway they had taken on their way to the pool and Rei ran over, leaving Haruka just enough time to snatch up his belongings and run after them barefooted. There were no more detours: they hurried to the front entrance as quickly as their legs could carry them, hoping nobody had seen the way three boys came scrambling out of the building like cockroaches frightened by the light switch.

They took refuge behind the bushes while Haru put his clothes and shoes back on. Rei watched him with a heavy look and then closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Haruka-senpai…"

"What?" replied Haru, wondering why he was still there. Rei looked him in the eye, almost forlorn, and slowly offered him the trophy.

"I think you should have this, Haruka-senpai," he said, holding it out until Haru had no choice but to take it.

"Why?" asked Haru, turning it about in his hands. It felt cold and dead to his fingers. They should have never come here to find it.

"Because you're the eldest, Haruka-senpai," said Rei, plain and irrefutable.

"Take it, Haru-chan," pleaded Nagisa, glancing sheepishly from one tired face to the other. "It will look good on your shelf."

Haru resisted the urge to tell Nagisa that they might as well throw the trophy into the nearest trashcan because it was garbage – Rin certainly thought so, so why couldn't he? But some things he had no power to say. Rei and Nagisa looked almost scared. What were they even afraid of? Didn't they know none of this was real…?

The moment Haru took the trophy under his arm, Rei handed back the spade and looked at his watch, clearing his throat just barely.

"We need to hurry if we want to catch the last train, Nagisa-kun," he said in a hushed voice. Nagisa nodded, his eyes still large.

"Okay. Good night, Haru-chan," he whispered.

"Good night, Haruka-senpai."

"Night."

Haru stood there for a while longer, caring little how suspicious he must have looked standing in front of that old building with a spade in one hand and a trophy in the other. None of it mattered. He would wake up soon was what he told himself over and over as he headed home on his own, counting the stone steps all the way up to his house. His head was swimming but every moment bore the promise of that fragile _soon_ that would shatter the dream and set him free. The trophy grew so heavy in the climb he could hardly bear it.

He stumbled through the door and dropped it along with the spade, crawling upstairs and into bed. He curled up and pulled the covers over himself, his mind so full of screams he thought he might scream in earnest and someone would hear him when nobody was there, nobody had ever been there _no, No, NO, it wasn't real,_ Rin was still in Australia, why would he appear on the very same night they decided to go?

Was Rin still haunting him after all this time..?

.

. .

_No. It was a dream. ._

_Just a dream. . like always. . ._


	4. Episode 01: Part 4

Haruka jolted from sleep at dawn, rising from a fever dream that resulted so naturally from last night's nightmare that he pinched himself just to be safe. It hurt and he welcomed the raw sting with a sickening sense of relief; it had all been in his head after all, a thought so liberating he gladly surrendered one more hour's rest to being irrefutably awake. He slipped out of bed and hurried down the stairs, ready to start his day right this time— and froze on the last step. In the entrance hall lay his spade and the trophy that should have still been buried in the cold, dead earth.

Haru's face hardened. Could he even try to pretend it had only been his imagination now that it all seemed to be real, painfully real in all its ill consequences? Was there any refuge for him in the cracks of reality, any small gap where Rin would not, could not follow? He doubted it. If Rin really did come back, he would claw his way back into Haruka's life where he was still vulnerable, defenseless…

The trophy was stuffed into the box that held every award Haru had won up until the age of thirteen and the cabinet door slammed shut with such force it coaxed a soft hum from the bell on the family altar. Haru lifted his head.

"Send help, Oba-chan," he whispered as he lit the incense, staring wistfully at his late grandmother's photograph. "I don't want to go back there again."

Only the pressing obligation of school attendance could persuade him to leave the room, pointedly ignoring the telltale spade as he hurried down to the kitchen. He had lied to Nagisa: there were still some leftovers from yesterday's dinner, soon laid carefully into one of his twin bentos while a fresh fillet was sizzling happily on the grill. The toast popped out just as Haru was ready to claim his fried mackerel and united with the fish as a make-shift edible plate that Haru bit into with savage gusto. He would not starve today or need anyone's charity, especially not Tachibana's to whom he still felt indebted in the most obnoxious way. Unlike those he had known longer, who would have immediately asked Haruka to repay them in help with arts and crafts or some token of equal value, Tachibana asked for nothing – _so far_. Haru couldn't put it past him to slowly figure out over night that he was in a position to make demands that Haruka's sense of integrity would oblige him to fulfill, and so the danger lingered, just another cloud on the stormy horizon, and it had to wait. Haru had enough problems without him and felt he could tolerate any accusations of ungratefulness if it led Tachibana to concentrate his noble efforts elsewhere. He could only hope the guy was not persistent or stubborn. There was nothing Haruka could give him; the well of his generosity had long gone dry.

* * *

"Good morning, Nanase-kun," Haru heard Tachibana say as he approached the guy's desk on the way to his own, sitting down quickly by his desk and propping his backpack against the side. He turned to face Tachibana and looked him dead in the eye, his mind fast-forwarding past the greetings and straight to the point, which was to state without any apparent precedent or reason,

"I brought lunch today."

Tachibana let out a small "Oh?", but his eyes soon lit up and he flashed Haru one of those soft smiles from yesterday.

"That's great," he said. "What did you bring?"

"Mackerel," said Haru, making a show of turn away from Tachibana to end the conversation. He heard a small hum in reply that he supposed must have been another smile: he could almost feel its all-pervasive radiance that no barrier could truly keep at bay. It was annoying. What could the guy possibly be smiling about when Haru had just brushed him off after such a curt exchange? Was Tachibana laughing at him? If he carried on like that for long, Haru felt he might grow to hate him even without Rin's past crimes hanging over his head.

At any rate, his classmate seemed to have inferred that he had been dismissed and did not engage Haruka in conversation again for the rest of the morning. To be fair, he simply had no opportunity or time – after second period, some of the girls began gathering around Tachibana's desk to introduce themselves. They asked him the usual questions – was he from around here? How did he like Iwatobi High School so far? Did he have a girlfriend? (_Yes_, _Very much_, and _No_, the last answer followed by much meaningful silence.) Haru's face grew darker with each exchange, irritated beyond measure at having to listen and sulking worse yet when Tachibana risked a sideways glance at him as though he understood. One of the girls noticed and gave a good-humored _hmph_.

"Don't mind Nanase-kun, he's always like this," she said, no doubt trying to dissolve tension and evidently failing as Haru shot their entire party a glare. The genial empty chatter of others was always more reprehensible the less it could be ignored, and no sharp turn of his head could reduce their noise or his malcontent, both of them entirely Tachibana's fault. He had done nothing wrong _per se_, but he was too friendly and he smiled too much. Worse, he was tall and good-looking (or so Haruka supposed) without any ounce of discernible conceit. Indeed the more Haru begrudgingly listened to him – yes, he was going to take English though he was never very good at it, no, he was not free this afternoon, he would have liked to go but he had promised his little brother and sister he would help them with their project –, the more he was forced to admit, if only to himself in the smallest of voices, that he had no reason to think ill of him. The thought brought him little comfort though. He remained as he were, his neck twisted archly towards the window for the rest of the break, and should more people drift by to quiz Tachibana on his life history, Haru was in great danger of being stuck in that position for every break that would follow. His only consolation was that he had no obligations to Nagisa or Rei for the day – the world would be his oyster for lunch break if he could only find a good spot to whisk himself away and have his mackerel. That became his sole object and while there was hope of it, he could tolerate his classmates with equanimity… at least until the bell rang and all civility could be cast down like a useless robe. Speed was of the essence; nothing mattered in comparison.

"So, Nanase-kun, do you want to have lunch together?" Haru heard Tachibana say, but he was already in motion, rising from the desk with his bento hugged firmly to his chest. He fixed his eyes on the door, shoulders stiff and posture tense, walking right past Tachibana's desk without a word. "…I guess not," the other's voice drifted after him, sounding more amused than disappointed. Haruka's face darkened again.

Whether by sheer coincidence or capriciousness of fate, Haru was eventually lured to the very same patch of green where Tachibana had eaten lunch the other day. The sun had spilled its warmth and color magnanimously over the grass and Haruka immediately rolled onto his back, tucking his hands behind his head. Lunch could wait just a little while… a nap first would be nice…

"_Haru-chaaan!_"

…Or not.

"Good day, Haruka-senpai!" came Rei's voice a moment after and they perched themselves on one side of Haru, closer to the shade of the trees around them. "May we join you?"

"Do I have a choice?" muttered Haru, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Of course!" said Nagisa. "Your choice is yes!"

Haruka curled one arm over his eyes in surrender.

"Your lack of choice aside, Haruka-senpai, we were thinking that we should discuss last night," said Rei as he pierced his strawberry drink with a straw and took a thoughtful sip like some private detective smoking his pipe in contemplation. "Rin-senpai's behavior—"

"What are you talking about?" replied Haru with forced evenness, keeping his arm firmly where it shielded him from their prying glances. "There is nothing to discuss. It wasn't real."

"What do you mean it wasn't real?" balked Rei. "If it wasn't real, what was it then?"

Haru's arm slipped off and sunshine poured over him in rays. He opened his eyes.

"A dream?"

"No, it wasn't a dream, Haruka-senpai!" snapped Rei, now just plain agitated. "It is highly improbable that three people should share the same dream with exact matching details!"

"I still don't get it though," mumbled Nagisa over a mouthful of bread. "Rin-chan was really weird…"

"Look-alike," said Haru.

"What reason could a look-alike possibly have to challenge you to a race, Haruka-senpai?"

"A ghost, then."

"He wasn't floating," remarked Nagisa.

"Doppelganger."

"Oh, that takes me back!" spoke Rei, more cheerfully this time. "We used to do that at the Iwatobi Swimming Club, remember, Nagisa-kun?" He quickly put down his drink and straightened his back, arms swinging into place. "_Super Fusion…_"

"…_Doppelganger!_" cried Nagisa, mirroring Rei's movements in perfect synch. They caught each other's eyes and laughed, faces bright in the sunlight. Haru rolled onto his side to turn his back on them.

"Keep it down."

"Aww, come on, Haru-chan..!" whined Nagisa, but in a matter of moments, he perked up and said, "Ah, that reminds me, who's your new friend?"

Haru's face twitched. He was glad nobody saw. "I don't have one."

"Oh…? Did you break up?"

Haru bit his lip, sinking into stubborn silence as Nagisa and Rei took turns insistently quizzing him, too irritated to answer and yet too lazy to move. They were loud and unscrupulous, each so absorbed in their small world they hadn't noticed they had drawn spectators: two girls were standing not too far away over the small bridge stretching across an artificial brook coursing through the school yard.

"Do you know those guys?" one whispered to the other, who nodded sternly. She was the girl whom Haruka had passed as he joined Nagisa and Rei on the roof, and though none of them had noticed or recollected her, she remembered and remembered them well.

"Mh hmm. Nanase Haruka. Hazuki Nagisa. Ryuugazaki Rei. What they have in common is that they used to belong to the same swimming club, and they're all boys with girly names," she told her friend Hanamura, who stared at them in awe.

"What's your relationship with them?" she whispered to her friend.

"That's a secret," came the mysterious reply.

"That means you have something in common with them too, Gou," replied Hanamura, "Since you're a girl with a boyish name." She was pleased with her deduction, but the recipient, not so much.

"Seriously," she snapped, turning on her friend, "_stop calling me Gou!_"

* * *

Nagisa and Rei soon abandoned their quest of interrogating Haru; when he at last opened his mouth, it was to sample his lunch and his kouhai were obliged to follow suit lest they squander their entire lunch break on futile pleas for information. They were not worried, not yet – speculation was half the fun. Indeed, it was the only fun to be had once they were told at the beginning of sixth period that they had been summoned to the Faculty Office after school. Rei was mortified and even Nagisa admitted to some guilt and remorse, and so they went together… and faced the trial on their own. Haruka was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on!" the school counselor reprimanded them, his tone angry enough to make both lower their heads like sheepish children. "The place may be abandoned, but it's still trespassing if you enter without permission! Do you understand?"

"We're sorry," mumbled Nagisa, keeping his eyes on the floor.

"Please accept our deepest apologies," added Rei, performing a low bow. The man sighed. There was a pause.

"Where's Nanase?"

"We don't know, Sensei," said Rei, straightening but keeping his head inclined. "We had seen him at lunch break – he might have left early."

"Again?" groaned the counselor, but before he could continue, there was a sharp creak and Amakata-sensei rose from her chair, walking over to defend the absent.

"Now, now. I think that's enough," she said in a soft, cheerful lilt. "Think back to what Li Bai once said. _In human life, accomplishment must bring total joy. Do not allow an empty goblet to face the moon._"

Rei may have felt embarrassed for his inability to place the quote, but Nagisa and the counselor looked just as confused as he was.

"_You only have one life, so you should do what you want. It would be foolish not to drink from the glass placed before you_… Right?"

Their faces said it all: the audience was simply not on the same wavelength. "...Huh? Why are you looking at me like that?"

The counselor coughed, clearing his throat loudly enough to dismiss even the immortal wisdom of Li Bai.

"Well, don't let me catch you trespassing again! Are we clear?"

"Yes," replied Rei and Nagisa in unison, bowing again before they slipped out and left their superiors behind.

* * *

"Whew… that was close," sighed Nagisa. They leant against the wall, exchanging weary glances. "What now, Rei-chan? Do you wanna go home?"

"I suppose. Although…" said Rei, pushing up his glasses in deep thought. "Perhaps we could check one thing before we go, Nagisa-kun."

Within five minutes, they reached the school locker room and started combing row after row of locker doors to check the metal name tags upon each.

"Matsuoka Rin, Matsuoka Rin..." Nagisa muttered to himself as he paced down an aisle of lockers while Rei searched the one next to him. "Do you really think he might go to our school?"

"If Rin-senpai's back from Australia, there may be reason to suppose he had transferred into our school," replied Rei, keeping his eyes on the lockers.

"But I didn't see him at the opening ceremony…"

_Manjoume… Marufuji… Matsuo—_

"I found him!" cried Rei in triumph.

"Really?!" replied Nagisa, hurrying over to Rei's aisle. Rei turned to the name plate again.

"…Oh. No, wait... Matsuoka.. Gou?" he read the plate, his brow creased in thought. "That sounds familiar somehow..."

Rei had received no reminders and Nagisa was in too much of a hurry the other day to notice or mention the fellow first-year he had collided with on his way to Haruka's building, but another memory soon presented itself: a little girl with a large paper bag holding an empty cookie tin.

"Ah! I remember now! She must be Rin-senpai's younger sister, Matsuoka Gou-san!"

"Gou-chan is going to Iwatobi? We should tell Haru-chan!" said Nagisa, grinning from ear to ear.

"I suppose a visit to Haruka-senpai wouldn't hurt…" concluded Rei.

* * *

Haru did leave early; he had made up his mind long before Amakata-sensei told him that he was expected at the Faculty Office and he nodded in agreement not to raise suspicion that he hadn't the slightest intention to go. He was almost glad – it served as an excellent ruse, just the thing he needed to ward off Tachibana. As soon as sixth period was over and the guy turned to him, Haru could stare him down and say without any remorse or worry,

"I have to go."

"So I've heard," replied Tachibana, his tone soft and his face even softer, almost apologetic. "Are you in trouble, Nanase-kun?"

"No," said Haru, pulling his backpack over his shoulder as he left.

"See you tomorrow..!"

_Annoying busybody. _The way Tachibana could feign concern for him was driving Haru up the wall and down the road on his bicycle with lightning speed, a million questions chasing him to his house two stone steps at a time. Why did Tachibana even bother? Was he after something? It seemed like the only plausible reason for pursuing someone who shook him off at every turn, someone who was "always like this". The expression drew a bitter frown across Haruka face all the more so because it could not be refuted, and like his distaste for anyone presuming to know him, his troubles just kept lingering. Tachibana definitely wanted something from him. To suppose otherwise… _No._ Haru locked the door, quickly stripped and soon sank into the bathtub in his swimsuit, leaving the matter to the water.

He sat there for a long time and the only suggestion he could gauge from the silence was that he had to pay back Tachibana for his favor as soon as possible. If the guy accepted, all obligations would cease, and were he to decline in any shape or form, Haru would finally be able to call him out on his obvious mind games.

The bell rang once, twice. His parents would have announced their arrival a week in advance; there was no danger. Haru took a deep breath and plunged under the water to hear no evil.

His visitor kept pressing the button, but the dead silence that screamed behind each empty ring of the bell discouraged her soon enough. She hung her head and turned to leave, to find her path was blocked. It was Nagisa and Rei. The latter cleared his throat.

"Matsuoka Gou-san?"

"No," replied the girl. Rei blinked. Nagisa quirked his brow.

"Oh… aaah.. we must have been mistaken," mumbled Rei, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry—"

"It's _Kou._ Not Gou – _Kou,_" said Matsuoka Kou. "Get it right, _Rei-kun_."

"But your name is Gou, no?" said Nagisa. "Gou, like the Sengoku warlord Azai Nagamasa's third daughter, right?"

"Yes, it is," replied Kou, shooting him a glare, "But the typical reading is Kou, so call me that like everybody else. That would be the nice thing to do."

"We are sorry.." said Rei, nudging Nagisa in the side. "..Matsuoka Kou-san."

Kou flashed him a smile as sweet as her irritation had been bitter and Rei scratched his cheek with a finger. The younger Matsuoka was just as lovely, perhaps even more becoming now than he remembered, back in the day when she wore cheerful overalls and Rin told him and Nagisa to think twice before ogling her if they valued their young lives.

"Kou-chan, then!" declared Nagisa, grinning from ear to ear. "So you're attending Iwatobi High School now?"

"Yeah… I've just started this trimester," said Kou, glad things seemed to go her way for once.

"Welcome to Iwatobi High School, Kou-san," said Rei, giving her a smart bow. "But tell us, what brings you to Haruka-senpai's house?"

Kou quickly averted her eyes – it was her turn to look sheepish and fumble for words.

"Oh... I just wanted to ask him about my brother.."

Rei and Nagisa exchanged glances.

"So Rin-chan really _is_ back from Australia," said Nagisa. Kou nodded, hanging her head.

"He returned last month and he's attending Samezuka Academy now," she explained, her voice small. "It's a boarding school, so he hasn't even come home."

"Samezuka Academy?" asked Rei, his eyes widening in awe. "The fabled swimming powerhouse…?"

"That's right. I figured he must have wanted to eventually enter tournaments and swim with Nanase-san again."

"But Haru-chan doesn't swim in tournaments anymore," chimed in Nagisa. Kou squeaked.

"Eh?! But I thought Nanase-san was a swimming prodigy? Onii-chan wouldn't stop talking about how fast he was!"

"We are not sure what happened," said Rei, "but it appears Haruka-senpai really had quit swimming competitively. He said so himself."

Kou paused, glancing up at the house in defeat.

"I guess there's no point then," she said, her voice low again. "I had better go."

"Is he not home then?" asked Nagisa.

"I rang the doorbell five times. Nobody answered."

"I suppose Haruka-senpai isn't keen on unexpected visitors…"

"Maybe he's on the toilet," suggested Nagisa. Kou made a face. "Call him on the phone, Rei-chan, tell him Kou-chan wants to see him!"

"No-no-no, that's okay!" cried Kou, raising her hands in protest. "I'm sure I can talk to him some other time! I've got to go now!" she said as she tore past them, her schoolbag thumping on her back. "Goodbye Rei-kun, Nagisa-kun!"

Rei stared after her until she disappeared down the street, slowly shaking his head. "I do believe you scared her away, Nagisa-kun.."

Nagisa shrugged, turning back to Rei.

"I was serious, though. Call Haru-chan, I bet he's just stewing inside again," he said and Rei sighed, taking out his phone to dial Haruka's number – at least now he was putting his contact information to better use than he had for the past two years.


	5. Episode 01: Part 5

Nagisa's theory proved correct. Haru had since come to the surface for air and leant against the back of the tub, assuming his visitor had gone away; but before his nails could truly turn reminiscent of the patterns on his swimsuit, the phone started ringing and Haruka begrudgingly picked it up, having placed it nearby just to be safe.

"Haruka-senpai? It's Rei. Please come down for a minute, Haruka-senpai."

"…Nh."

A minute later, Haru opened the door in nothing but said swimsuit and a towel over his head, his body still conspicuously wet. Rei's face twitched. Nagisa blinked.

"Did we interrupt something, Haruka-senpai?"

"Yeah," said Haru, his eyes sharp. "What do you want?" Nagisa took a deep breath.

"Haru-chan, you're never gonna believe this—"

"Then don't tell me."

"—but Rin-chan really _is_ back in Japan!"

Haru's eyes narrowed. He reached up and began drying his hair in earnest with the towel.

"And that's not all, Haru-chan! Rin-chan's sister Gou-chan—"

"It's _Kou-chan_—san, Nagisa-kun.."

"Right, right, Kou-chan now goes to Iwatobi High!"

Haru paused for a moment. _That's right,_ Rin did have a sister, just one year younger. All of them had at least one sibling now that he thought about it except for him, as though he had been destined to be alone from the very start. Even Tachibana was an older brother to a pair of twins…

"She had come here earlier to see you about her brother," Rei carried on in Nagisa's stead. "She told us that Rin-senpai now attends Samezuka Academy."

"…And?" said Haru, his voice acrid. His late grandmother always did say that trouble never came alone, and within just a few minutes of listening to the excited chatter of his former teammates who considered this felicitous news, Tachibana was miraculously absolved of his sins that now found their rightful place over Matsuoka Rin's head, the original bane of Haruka's existence. Blaming Rin was easier than his earlier attempts to find fault in soft and mellow Tachibana. Between the two of them, those sleepy green eyes were undoubtedly the lesser evil.

"Don't you get it, Haru-chan?" said Nagisa, sounding more and more excited. "If we take the train, we can visit Samezuka Academy to see Rin-chan!"

"No." The reply was instant and Haruka's hand shifted to the door as though he were ready to pull it shut. Nagisa stared at him in disbelief.

"But Haruka-senpai.. don't you wish to see Rin-senpai again?" asked Rei, just as surprised as Nagisa.

"We saw him yesterday," replied Haru, his hand tightening on the handle.

"Aww, come on, Haru-chan…!" pleaded Nagisa. "Things turned out weird yesterday, but maybe he's come around since then!"

"I'm not interested," said Haru, the door finally starting to slide shut. Nagisa yelped and quickly grabbed onto it to keep it open as Rei was furiously racking his brain for incentives.

"B-but Haruka-senpai – Rin-senpai was our friend..!" The struggle for the door immediately worsened, now threatening to end in broken fingers one way or another and Rei let out a war cry, shoving Nagisa aside to jam himself in the doorway. Haru glared daggers at him and let go of the door with one hand to start pushing at him with the other. "Hear me out, Haruka..senpai! Samezuka.. Academy.. is a prestigious boarding school.. with its own.. swimming.. facilities…!"

"_They have a pool!_" cried Nagisa. "You can swim there if you_ stop murdering Rei-chan!_"

Rei staggered out of the doorway the next moment as the door rolled open again, nearly landing on top of Nagisa. Haru stared at them, the arm that was pushing at Rei hovering in the air for a moment longer before it fell softly to his side. Nagisa steadied Rei and they exchanged glances, turning to look back at Haruka.

"If you come with us, Haruka-senpai, we'll find a way to get you in," said Rei, straightening his shirt that had bunched up in the scuffle.

"_To the pool_," stressed Haru, his eyes hard but his earlier resolve obviously wavering. Nagisa cracked a smile.

"To the pool, Haru-chan."

"You might want to get dressed first though, Haruka-senpai," said Rei, eyeing Haru's bare chest with disapproval. There was a sigh and Haru retreated upstairs. Rei sighed, too.

"You could use a change of clothes yourself, Rei-chan," said Nagisa the moment Haru was gone, beginning to giggle.

"What are you talking about, Nagisa-k—AAAAAaaaaAAHH!" howled Rei when he finally looked down: in an effort to drive him out, Haru apparently pressed against his trousers in all the wrong places for wet patches.

* * *

Haruka soon reappeared dressed in his school uniform, arriving back to a giggly Nagisa and an embarrassed looking Rei who now held Nagisa's backpack in front of himself by its handle. Haru nearly asked but stopped himself just in time. He probably didn't want to know.

"Ready? Let's go!" cheered Nagisa, raising his fist to the sky and they began their journey at a casual pace towards the nearest train stop, down the stone stairs and past the bay Haruka walked by every day on the way to school. It was a long walk, long enough to exhaust all attempts at small talk except for one thing – Nagisa asking _Who gave you that sandwich?_ in a myriad of creative variants at random intervals, hoping to catch Haruka off guard. He was out of luck, however: Haru kept his eyes on the road in stubborn silence, his jaws clenched so firmly he might have had difficulty opening his mouth even if he had begun to slip. Why they were so hung up on knowing who it was, he couldn't imagine. And what did they expect to hear exactly, just two days into the trimester? He hardly knew anything about the guy except for what the girls managed to coax out of him in-between classes…

_Tachibana Makoto, a guy with a girly name. Single. Scorpio. 16 years old. Older brother to twins Ran and Ren, both grade-schoolers. Lives in Iwatobi with his family. Olive green hair, bright green eyes, good-looking (perhaps), tall and well-built (if the fit of his uniform was anything to go by). Right-handed. Bad at English and art. Likes sports. Also seems to like the color orange. Meddlesome, smiles too much, talks even more, is generally the greatest nuisance_… and Haruka had to stop himself from searching the bank of his memory even further. And what did the guy know about him in return? _Nanase Haruka, a guy with a girly name. Unable to take care of himself. Eats mackerel. "Always like this."_ Haru lowered his head, his gaze hardening. _Enough already._

He managed to hold his tongue all the way to the train station where they got into an empty coach and settled down on one of the benches to the side, sitting close together. Tired from his unsuccessful attempts, Nagisa quickly slumped against Rei, nestling to his friend's shoulder until he found his usual spot. Rei sighed but said nothing and closed his eyes, the two soon fast asleep and Rei snoring just loudly enough to annoy Haruka into scooting away.

Having no one to keep him company anymore, Haru watched them for a while, his gaze lingering on the rhythmic rise and fall of their chests, their softened expressions and the way Nagisa drooled in his slumber, leaving a damp patch on Rei's jacket. No amount of clacking wheels or sudden jolts of the train could disturb them; indeed the more Haruka stared at them, the more he began to imagine himself uncomfortable, as though sitting freely with no one to weigh him down or slobber all over his clothes could no longer compare to their mutual accomplishment of lulling each other into blissful sleep, leaving Haruka to his thoughts and the resonant silence of the coach. The emptiness inside him screeched and Haru turned his head to the window, his light-washed reflection staring back at him for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Samezuka Academy boasted a handsome green campus and a large, modern indoor pool with every conceivable convenience known to swimmers. Approaching it proved fairly easy: there was hardly anyone around to notice or question their brown trousers and gray jackets emblazoned with the large blue coat of arms of Iwatobi High School. Nagisa and Rei crept along the wall by the barred windows of the indoor pool, keeping their heads down not to be spotted. There were over a dozen students inside, caught in a vigorous training session ("Hey! You're slowing down, Nakagawa! Move!") that thankfully drew their attention away from any outsiders. Nagisa and Rei settled by the window.

"Do you see Rin-chan?"

"I can't see him anywhere… perhaps his training session is at another time," said Rei, sounding disappointed. "I suppose we'll have to wait until everybody finishes. Haruka-senpai—" he continued, turning his head back and then nearly screamed the next moment as Haru had been undressing behind them, just about to pull down his pants. Rei let out a strangled cry and jumped at him, grabbing the hem of his trousers to yank them back up. "Haruka-senpai, _stop!_"

"You said that if I came here I could swim in the pool!" snapped Haru, suddenly fierce and animate. Nagisa quickly scrambled between them, pushing the two slightly backwards.

"Now, now, Haru-chan," he said, his voice gentle. "Let's wait until practice is over and everyone's gone. Okay?"

Haru glared at him but said no more. Rei twitched nervously.

"This is so wrong," he breathed, releasing Haruka's trousers to fumble nervously with his tie. "I can't believe we're trespassing again… what will become of my flawless record..!"

"It'll be _fine,_ Rei-chan," Nagisa hushed him, flashing him a reassuring smile. "Besides, that teacher earlier told us to do whatever we want with our lives—"

There was a soft rustle of fabric behind them and the metallic click of a belt as Haruka removed his trousers for good, revealing what appeared to be the same swimsuit or one just like it. Rei shrieked, no longer caring who heard them.

"Can't it wait, Haruka-senpai?!"

* * *

Haruka's primordial urges and the dissonant growls of their stomachs stretched the wait to excruciating lengths. All they had between them was a bag of candy Nagisa had stuffed into his bag in the morning and since neither Haruka nor Rei were keen on sweets, all of it disappeared without their help one piece at a time. The bag would have been gone sooner had Nagisa given up on his quest to interrogate Haru, but while there was time to kill, he was at his leisure to think up a few more variations of _Who's your new friend?_ between bites of candy, and otherwise calm and sensible Rei actually encouraged him, burning inside with curiosity that speculations have only made worse.

"Just tell us one thing, Haru-chan: is it a boy or a girl?"

"Honestly, Haruka-senpai, what is there to hide about a blossoming friendship?"

"Come on, Haru-chan!"

"They are not my friend!" snapped Haru, refusing to give them the satisfaction of even knowing what sort of person to imagine. He could have accomplished the same thing by just saying _Their name is Makoto_, but something inside him advised against it and Haru decided to listen.

"We could always come visit you in class, you know…" mused Nagisa, raising one finger to his chin. "Maybe then—"

"I forbid it."

"But Haruka-senpai—"

"_Just leave it._"

Nagisa and Rei respected his wishes for the moment, waiting with threadbare patience for practice to end. Even once everyone had left the indoor pool, it seemed wise to lay low for just ten minutes longer until the entire campus wound down into dead silence. Soon there was nothing to hear, not even bird song, and that was the moment they took their chance, sneaking to the door and slipping inside.

The structure stretched for miles and the pool seemed enormous: the moment they had stepped within ten feet of it, it ensnared Haru completely. He shed his clothes within two seconds and jumped in within two more (ignoring Rei's cries to slow down – W_hat for?_), and there, in the moonlit ripples of that vast body of water, he found peace again. Nagisa and Rei watched in tongue-tied awe as Haruka's slender form slithered towards the distance like a serpent, their hearts beating just a little faster.

"I get the feeling we shouldn't be here," said Rei, his voice quiet and distant, "But watching Haruka-senpai swim so gracefully… ah. He still swims as beautifully as ever."

"Aah," sighed Nagisa, his eyes gleaming in the pale light. "Haru-chan still reminds me of a dolphin." His heart fluttered with the happy memories of a ten-year-old long gone and his smile widened, turning to Rei. "Rei-chan, let's swim with him!"

"What?!" cried Rei, his hair standing on end. "Forget it, Nagisa-kun! We'll get in trouble if anyone finds us using another school's pool without permission! Besides, we came to look for Rin-senpai, remember?" he went on as Nagisa began to undress, loosening his tie and soon stripping off his vest and shirt in one go.

"We can take a little dip first," replied Nagisa, his hands now fiddling with his belt buckle. "Nobody will find us if we don't turn on the lights."

"But neither of us have brought a swimsuit, Nagisa-kun.."

"A little skinny dip, then," said Nagisa cheerfully, tossing his pants and underwear aside. Rei's hands smacked on his burning cheeks with an indignant choke.

"What are you doing?! Put your clothes back on this instant!" he howled but it was too late: Nagisa made a dash towards the edge and hurled himself into the air.

"_I can swim!_" he cried triumphantly, landing butt-first with a roaring _SPLASH!_ Rei shook his head, his temple throbbing with nerves.

"Rei-chan.. come over here," cooed Nagisa when he resurfaced. Rei tensed his shoulders.

"You're not going to pull a fast one on me, Nagisa-kun," he said as he carefully approached the edge and stopped just short of it, settling down in a safe distance. "Have you forgotten that I wear glasses? I'm not going to jeopardize my prescription lenses for your childish games!"

Nagisa lingered near him in the water, looking a little miffed that his fun was spoiled. He slowly turned his back as though he were going to swim towards Haru, then quickly spun around and splashed some water in Rei's direction, caring little if he hit or missed.

"AAAAHH!" Target hit. Nagisa only managed to get some on Rei's arm and hair, but the ultimatum was duly acknowledged and the next moment, Rei dragged himself closer to the edge to smack into the water and return the favor with a splash of his own. "Take that, Nagisa-kun!"

Nagisa laughed, loud and free and bubbly, soon caught in an intense splash war with Rei who may not have gotten into the water but was soon soaked all the way to his trousers in the effort. "Take that!"

"Take that—"

The door creaked and slammed shut behind them. Rei made a startled noise and rolled away from the edge to face the visitor; Nagisa's arm twitched upward and went limp mid-attack. Even Haru seemed to have stopped swimming, the pool as still as though no life floated within. It was Rin, this time in a white winter uniform that was still no match for the cold glint of his eye as he approached Rei and Nagisa, stopping a few feet away.

"Rin-senpai…" whispered Rei, suddenly ashamed of his soaked shirt and dripping hair.

"What are you guys doing here?" demanded Rin, glaring from one to the other. Rei scampered to his feet and brushed himself off in a futile attempt to salvage his wet clothes and Nagisa raised a tentative hand to wave hello.

"Rin-chan..! We came here to see you," he said, trying for a light tone.

"_Get out!_"

"Rin-senpai..." mumbled Rei, shooting Nagisa a worried look… and then he saw it. Haru had since made his way surreptitiously towards them and gracefully slipped past Nagisa under the water, rising to the surface opposite from where Rin was standing. His wet hair clung to his scalp like a slick helmet, covering his eyes.

"Free..." he said, his voice low yet ringing clear in the dead silence. Rin flinched.

"Huh?"

"Did you forget?" said Haru, eyes still searching the depths of the pool for strength. "I told you I only swim freestyle."

"Haru-chan?" spoke Nagisa, now worried in earnest.

"Haruka-senpai…" breathed Rei. The next moment brought Haru to the edge and rising over it as he climbed out of the pool, water running down his back in glistening cascades. _About three years until I'm ordinary. I guess it couldn't hurt to wait a little longer._ He shook his head and his locks parted, revealing a pair of glowing blue eyes.

"I want you to show me that sight again," he said, trying and failing to match that challenging tone to an equally challenging smirk. "I've since forgotten what I saw."

Rin arched his head backwards as if reeling in slow-burning anger, but his features smoothed out as he closed his eyes and shut out the sight of those blue ones boring so archly into his.

"Sure, I can do that," he said evenly, his own smirk razor sharp. "But it won't be the same this time! I'll be showing you something completely different," he promised, glaring daggers at Haruka. The two now faced each other, there bodies tense, and this time, there was nothing to stand in their way.

_**TO BE CONTINUED…**_


	6. Episode 02: Part 1

While Nagisa clambered out of the pool and was quickly ushered back to his pile of clothes by an anxious Rei, Rin abandoned his winter uniform for the same black and red legskin they had seen before at the Swimming Club so he and Haru could proceed onto the two starting blocks in the middle. Their friends soon joined them on the side, Nagisa finally in trousers and Rei's shirt unbuttoned not to cling so persistently to his skin.

"As always, I can't make any sense of you," said Rin with a wry smile, snapping his goggles into place. Haruka shrugged.

"Whatever," he replied, his features hardening as he braced himself. "You better get ready, Rin." Rin frowned but quickly found his smile again just to spite the other.

"And you're as icy as ever," he replied calmly, his serene mask soon slipping to reveal a row of gritted teeth. "Yeah… You really piss me off." Haru pretended not to hear.

"Rei," he said, turning his head to the others. Rei twitched and straightened.

"Y-Yes!"

"Give us the start signal," said Haru, fixing his eyes on the pool again.

"Alright, Haruka-senpai," replied Rei, his shoulders tense as he watched them bend down and assume their starting positions on the blocks.

"We'll race one-hundred meters, freestyle," announced Rin. Rei took a deep breath.

"Ready… Set… _Go!_"

They launched into the air like panthers pouncing their prey, bursting through the glassy surface of the water with their fangs bared.

"Oh wow!" cried Nagisa when he realized the difference between their landing points. "Rin-chan has a stronger kick!"

"That may be, Nagisa-kun, but Haruka-senpai's stroke seems faster!" said Rei, his voice growing louder as the excitement of the race consumed him and Haru's arms were swinging furiously towards his freedom. "He's doing great so far..!"

"Yeah," breathed Nagisa, his face hardening in concentration. "He's nearly caught up now!"

Haruka was gaining speed even as Nagisa spoke, threatening to pull in the lead. _Damn! I can't shake him! _the thought raced through Rin's mind, arms whirling in desperation.

"They're making the final turn!" cried Rei as Haru and Rin broke into a tumble turn. Their feet connected with the wall.

"Who hit first?!"

"Too close to tell!"

They launched forward like missiles, speeding towards the other end.

"They're neck and neck!" said Nagisa, his eyes wide.

"No, Nagisa-kun," spoke Rei, his voice strained. "Rin-senpai's kick was more powerful and put him in the lead!"

Rin was pulling further ahead with every stroke, tauntingly within and yet always _just_ out of reach, and Haruka pursued him relentlessly as though every atom of his body had honed onto Rin like a living compass. Pure adrenaline rushed through him with electric jolts and soon Rin became no more than a pulse, a thought, _a feeling_ as the moment swallowed them whole and Haru was carried on the waves of his momentum, his mind absolutely clear.

_I've seen this before. This sensation… _he thought as he floated forward._ I get it now. This is what I wanted. I don't want to rely on or work with other people… I just want to drift through the water alone in silence._

Their hands smacked against the wall beneath the starting blocks. There was a difference.

"Haru-chan!" "Haruka-senpai!" cried Rei and Nagisa as they hurried over to their friend. Haruka emerged silently and Rin pulled off his cap, bringing it down with a thundering splash.

"_Yes!_" he cried, grin feral and wide while Haru was still catching his breath, panting slightly with his eyes resting on the water. When the tremors of his chest finally died down, he closed his eyes, hoping the shake of his hands would not spread to his arms – not now, not in front of everyone.

"You win," he said quietly, lifting his head to turn to the other. "That's great, Rin."

He expected Rin to gloat and jeer and was perfectly ready to accept it. Anything was better than tears and hurt, even the reaction that did come instead of what had been and what could have been.

"_That's great?_" hissed Rin, his face contorting in fury. His hand shot forward and seized Haruka by the goggles hanging from his neck, yanking him over in a stranglehold, but Haru offered no explanation. His face was blank and distant, his mind withdrawn behind some invisible wall of _Do what you will, it doesn't matter anymore._ Rin's fist tightened on the goggle straps. Haru closed his eyes.

"HEY!" shouted someone behind them. It was the PE instructor of Samezuka Academy and Rin twitched, pushing Haruka away to quickly slither towards the other end of the pool as though he had nothing to do with any of them anymore.

Rin was still awake when the digital alarm clock on his nightstand ticked silently and 2.20 turned 2.21, lying on his back and staring at the bottom of the empty bunk above his bed. His phone rested just inches away from his head, quite forgotten until its screen lit up and it began to vibrate against the sheets. Rin untucked his hands from behind his head and reached for it – it was a message from his sister.

_From: Matsuoka Gou_

_Subject:_

_Did you get to see Nanase-san and the other guys?_

"Damn it!" growled Rin as he hurled the phone at the other end of the bed unanswered, his insides twisting with the realization that he mindlessly sought out Nanase at the slightest suggestion, the smallest hint from his meddling sister. He told himself a million times he did not care, that nobody was worth his time, so what was this if not foolish desperation, some childish yearning to prove himself right only to fail every time?

_Does this mean I can never beat him?_ the thought mocked him, his fingers curling into claws in his hair.

Some distance away on that small hill overlooking the ocean, Haruka was awake too, soaking in a green tea bath for relief that would not come, the peace of mind that constantly eluded him. He stared wistfully at the small happy figurine of a dolphin on the bathroom counter, gathering some water in his hands to squirt at it. His aim was as good as ever, the dolphin now dripping with green tea yet still smiling cheerfully into space, and Haruka envied it, he envied it so much his heart sank like a rock. He sank with it and his head dropped softly against the back of the tub, wondering what he had done for his world to constantly fall off its hinges, forever spiraling out of his control.

The next day, Haruka took his seat by Tachibana's side without a word, glaring into space as he waited for the inevitable, the arrival of his homeroom teacher for First Period Classical Literature and the potential threat of another summons to the Faculty Office. He shut out the world so completely he could no longer tell if Tachibana had said hello or not. He probably did. Too bad for him Haruka didn't care.

"Excuse me, Nanase-kun," came Amakata Miho's voice from above: she was glowering right above him with a sharpness in her eyes that stood in stark contrast to the small smile etched onto her face. "You are expected at the Faculty Office after school today, and you would do well to show up this time instead of leaving me to stand in for you. Are we clear?" she finished with that same eerie smile. Haru tensed.

"Yes."

"_Wonderful._ I'll see you there," chirped Amakata-sensei, leaving for the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom. Haru's grasp on self-containment had broken; Tachibana's voice finally reached beyond the barrier.

"You didn't go to the Faculty Office yesterday…?" he asked, looking absolutely shocked. "But you even said you had to go..!"

Haru clenched his jaw, turning to glare at Tachibana who now seemed to alternate with Nagisa, Rei and Rin in an endless loop of annoyance and wanting nothing more than to stop the wheel, even if he had to break its weakest link.

"What do _you_ care? It's none of your business," he said, just barely keeping his voice to a whisper. Tachibana's brow creased, his eyes wide and cloudy.

"You shouldn't ignore a faculty summons like that, Nanase-kun, think of the consequences..! You could be expelled if you're not careful," he said, his argument so sensible it irritated Haru like an pesky itch he couldn't scratch. "Promise me you'll go to the Faculty Office after school today like Ama-chan-sensei told you to. Please, Nanase-kun.."

Haru's eyes narrowed and before he could think about it, he blurted,

"If I promise to go, will you shut up and not talk to me again?" Tachibana quirked an eyebrow and Haru almost regretted he had spoken at all, but the other's features soon smoothed out in calm resignation.

"Very well, Nanase-kun. I will not talk to you until tomorrow if you do as you were told."

"Then it is time for you to stop," replied Haru as he turned his head to the blackboard, away from his self-appointed obnoxious guardian. Tachibana opened his mouth to reply in the affirmative but promptly stopped and turned away himself. His hands intertwined upon his desk, sitting perfectly still.

Tachibana was true to his word; for the rest of Classical Literature, he only spoke when prompted by Amakata-sensei to answer questions regarding the poem she had read to them at the beginning of class, and the interpretations he offered seemed thoughtful and clever. He appeared the exact opposite of Haruka who had always been good at the technical side of arts and crafts but rather insensitive to abstract symbolism: perfectly able to read between the lines and uncover the poetic truth within while his drawings from yesterday's Art class looked as sketchy and crude as children's doodles. Haru almost laughed when he saw how Tachibana failed to render a simple cube in graphite on paper. If that was the extent of his artistic talent at age sixteen, there was little hope for him to catch up to the compulsory level any time soon.

Since he was in no danger of conversation, Haruka allowed himself greater freedom in observing Tachibana, who had now become a curious object rather than the ever-bothersome subject. Haru would not look at him openly or study him at length, but a few short glances were enough to fill a few more blanks in his mental inventory of Tachibana's mannerisms. He noted the way Tachibana scratched at the back of his head when he seemed nervous and the drooping arch of his back when he relaxed; how he rolled his pen back and forth with a finger when his hand idled for longer than a few minutes. His hand was held lower when he was uncertain and higher when he was eager, but always to the side instead of vertically upward, and for better or worse, he engaged easily in conversation with anyone whose words seem to invite collaboration. As much as Haru wished him completely silent, Tachibana still ended up talking to others a great deal, not once glancing over to him in vain, and Haru hardly knew why the idea bothered him, but it did.

Instead of leaving for lunch break and risk bumping into Rei and Nagisa (whose questions about the "new friend" seemed incessant and vexed Haru to no end), he stayed at his desk, enjoying the freedom of remaining where he had been sitting all day while Tachibana gathered his bento and left without so much as a glance. _No doubt he went to talk other people's ears off_, thought Haruka, successfully fueling his own contentment over the arrangement he unthinkingly yet so fortunately made. Not that Tachibana offered any proof – he returned as he had left, alone and without a sound. Perhaps he had grown less cheerful over the course of the day, but he could have simply just been tired. Haruka refused to feel even an ounce of guilt. All he has done was hold the guy to his word, nothing more, nothing less.

When sixth period ended and all his things had been packed, Haru rose from his seat and a moment later, his neighbor did the same. Haruka ignored him and proceeded towards the classroom exit, but he soon became conscious of a second pair of footsteps echoing his as he walked down the corridor. He quickened his pace little by little and reached the Faculty Office in another minute, entering without so much as looking back. A few feet away, Tachibana lowered his head with a small, tired smile.

"Good luck, Nanase-kun," he said quietly before he turned back for his own backpack, soon passed in the hallway by a couple of recklessly running first-years. One of them bumped into him with a long string of painfully polite apologies and Tachibana finally cracked a real smile, shaking his head as he resumed his walk back to class.

"Idiots! Do you actually feel bad about what you've done?!" shouted the faculty advisor as Rei and Nagisa lowered their heads and Haru continued to glare into space. "First you trespass in an abandoned building, and now you trespass in another school's pool?!"

Haruka retained his stiff posture and silence as the others bowed with a modest and univocal "We're very sorry." The advisor lifted a hand to his face.

"Honestly, we're fortunate that they've agreed not to make a big deal of this."

The neighboring chair creaked once more and Amakata Miho approached them just as she had done last time, donning her brightest smile.

"Now, now. I think that's enough," she said in her usual sing-song lilt. "There's a famous saying that applies to this situation," she continued, lifting her hand to her heart. "In Ancient China during the Shang Dynasty, Duke Tai of Qi would fish without any bait—"

"I hate fish," interrupted the faculty advisor without the least bit of good humor in his tone or expression. Amakata-sensei stopped and quickly bowed her head.

"Excuse me.." she said in a small voice and everyone was dismissed.

"Ama-chan-sensei wasn't much help," said Nagisa once they had been released from the Faculty Office. Rei hummed.

"I wonder how fishing without any bait even pertains to our situation," he said as they were reaching the next turn. "I cannot follow Amakata-sensei's thought process at all. What do you think she meant, Haruka-sen— Haruka-senpai..?" he stuttered, looking around.

"Haru-chan's over there," said Nagisa, pointing to a shrinking figure in the distance that quickly escaped before the torment of interrogation could begin. Rei groaned, raking a hand through his hair.

"How does he move so fast…?" he mumbled, to be silenced the next moment by approaching footsteps.

"Ah, Gou-chan!"

"I told you to call me Kou!" snapped the newcomer.

"Nagisa-kun..!" chided Rei. Nagisa gulped and raised his hands peacefully.

"Now, now, it was just a slip of the tongue, Kou-chan." Kou squinted at him but said no more and they all started heading back towards the first-year classrooms.

"So, were you able to see my brother?" asked Kou as innocently as her conscience allowed.

"Yeah, about that… Rin-chan was so mean!" started Nagisa, glad someone finally asked. "We haven't seen each other in four years, and the first thing he does is challenge Haru-chan to a race! He completely ignored me and Rei-chan… We didn't get a chance to talk about anything!" he finished, gesturing wildly in indignation.

"Has Rin-senpai spoken to you about the encounter, Kou-san?" asked Rei, his voice low. Kou shook her head almost apologetically.

"I've sent him e-mails and called his cell without any luck," she explained, no longer looking at the others. "I even called his dorm number and nobody picked up."

"How come Rin-chan's changed so much?" asked Nagisa, following Kou's eyes towards the window to a small stretch of bright blue sky. "Did something happen in Australia?"

"I don't know. I was hoping he would open up after meeting you guys," said Kou and Rei's eyes narrowed. He adjusted his glasses.

"Kou-san.. Could it be that you are responsible for Rin-senpai's showing up at the Iwatobi Swimming Club?"

Now it was Kou who raised her hands in defense, her smile faltering.

"I wouldn't say that I was responsible…" she said, her tone laced with sheepish guilt. "I was just trying to help. I happened to overhear your conversation the other day, so I sent him a message to tell him the swimming club he used to go to was going to be torn down… but he never replied," she finished, hanging her head.

"Is that why you visited Haruka-senpai's house yesterday?" asked Rei. Kou nodded.

"Yes. I was hoping he might have some answers…"

"I see," replied Rei and they walked on in silence for a little while until Nagisa decided to break the freshly formed ice.

"Don't worry, Kou-chan," he said, spurring himself to sound encouraging and cheerful. "Rin-chan may not have opened up so far, but that just means we need to meet him some more!"

"Nagisa-kun..?" spoke Kou, unsure where the conversation was headed.

"And I know just what we need to do to make sure we run into him again and again. Let's start a swim club!"

"Nagisa-kun…?" Rei echoed Kou, his brows running all the way up his forehead.

"If we start a swim club, we can see Rin-chan at tournaments," explained Nagisa, absolutely thrilled with his brilliant plan. "We will swim together again, it'll be just like old times!"

"There is just one problem, Nagisa-kun," mumbled Rei, pushing up his glasses again. "I'm not sure how we are going to convince Haruka-senpai to join."

"We can worry about that later. I'll figure something out. You can count on us, Kou-chan!" replied Nagisa, his hands balling into fists in excitement. "Next stop, Haru-chan's house!"

"Here we go again…" moaned Rei, getting the feeling it was either going to be a violent Blitzkrieg or a long, unpleasant afternoon.

Once again, they caught Haruka mid-bath (if his swimsuit-clad reverie in a tub full of water could even be called a proper bath) and it took nine rings of the doorbell and a phone call to get him out of there, showing up topless and dripping wet when he at last opened the door. Kou quickly hid behind the boys and Haruka only caught a glimpse of her red ponytail as it flipped upward and settled behind Rei's taller, larger frame.

"Haru-chan, can we come in?" Nagisa greeted him all smiles. Haru's gaze was deadpan.

"How about no?"

"Aww, come on, Haru-chan..! We even brought you a visitor," he said and stepped to the side to leave an opening between himself and Rei where Kou emerged a moment later, thoroughly embarrassed.

_No! Don't look! Girls my age shouldn't ogle naked men!_ _Must… not… look… _her inner voice pleaded her as she first lowered her hand nervously and then slowly yielded to curiosity. Haru stood in the doorway with his right hand on his hip, his muscles in pleasing relief, and Kou's eyes widened, losing herself in him for a moment. _What incredible biceps…!_

"This is Rin-chan's sister," explained Nagisa. Kou blinked, her cheeks uncomfortably warm.

"H-Hello," she said, bowing her head. "It's been a long time."

"Matsuoka…" spoke Haru as he tried to recollect her and she braced herself for the inevitable. "…Kou."

Kou drew a relieved breath and flashed Haru her brightest smile.

"Yes!" she replied, tilting her head slightly the way Tachibana sometimes did when he smiled. Haru bit his lip. "I'm sorry about what my brother did yesterday."

"Don't sweat it," he replied, still not moving from the doorway.

"Haru-chan, we need to talk," said Nagisa, tapping his foot impatiently. "Let us in, alright?"

Haru narrowed his eyes but felt too tired to protest. He scooted to the side and the others headed in, Nagisa leading them in single file to the living room.

"Ah, where are the pillows again?"

"I think they were in the bottom cabinet last time, Nagisa-kun…"

Haru made a face behind them and then proceeded to the kitchen to make tea, the only thing he was willing to offer to uninvited guests.

"Do you need a hand, Haru-chan?" offered Nagisa and promptly headed into the kitchen as Rei pulled out more pillows for Kou and himself, settling down while the others busied themselves a few feet away. Kou had never visited Haruka's house before and was glancing over the decorations with a confused look. From Onii-chan's exultant stories of "Nanase", she expected a dozen splendid trophies but there was not even a single medal on the shelves, and she wasn't the only one surprised.

"Haruka-senpai…" began Rei, his tone tentative, "Did you manage to take the trophy home safely?"

"I did," came the curt reply. Rei sighed, looking at Kou who stood up to study the various bowls but was now holding a photograph that she found lying among them, half caught under a vase. Rei rose to his feet to join her. It was an old copy of the picture they saw at the abandoned Swimming Club: the four of them standing side by side as Rin held the trophy they had won together.

"Isn't this…" spoke Kou, eyeing those small faces carefully. Rei smiled.

"That's right, it is from the day the four of us won the relay," he said, beaming with pride despite the soft pang he felt as his finger traced the trophy in young Matsuoka Rin's hands. "On the day you overheard us, we went to the old Iwatobi Swimming Club to search for this trophy, but Rin-senpai must have anticipated us. He didn't want the trophy, however, so we gave it to Haruka-senpai for safe keeping. …I guess it's in another part of the house," he added with an apologetic smile. Kou lowered her eyes, taking a good look at those young, small faces again.

"Everyone's smiling…"

"Everyone except Haruka-senpai. To this day I cannot imagine what he was looking at," said Rei as their eyes wandered to that small figure with his head turned to the side.

"It's okay, Haru-chan is always smiling on the inside," interrupted Nagisa, bringing their tea. His tone and looks made Kou giggle.

"You make him sound like a bad person!" she whispered and Haruka did his best to ignore the laughter that followed, tidying up in the kitchen to gain more time away from their loud banter. With Nagisa joining the others in the living room, the photograph passed over to him.

"We have grown a lot since," he said, grinning at his younger self.

"Rin-senpai especially…" mused Rei, recalling how dense and rugged Rin looked without his clothes. When he compared the two, Haruka seemed to resemble Nagisa's thin frame more than Rin's muscular chest and chiseled abdominals. "I do believe we haven't seen him since the relay. Is this the first time he has come back to Japan since he had left for Australia, Kou-san?"

"Huh?" Kou stared at him in confusion. "He came back every year for New Year's."

"Really?!" cried Nagisa. "And he never told us…? That's so mean. He could have called…"

A few feet away, Haruka winced. Nobody noticed.

"Haru-chaaan, hurry up before the tea gets cold!" came Nagisa's whine a moment later. Haruka sighed, wishing he could have been quite forgotten, but not wanting the others to come after him, he walked into the living room and stopped by the table to stand over them rather than sit down and join their circle. The others peered up at him expectantly. Haru slowly helped himself to the only unclaimed cup on the tray.

"Is this why you came?" he asked, nodding to the picture. "To stare at that thing?"

"N-no, Haruka-senpai," replied Rei, pushing his glasses back. "There is something Nagisa-kun wanted to say to you," he continued, he and Kou now staring pointedly at Nagisa.

"That's right," said Nagisa, waving his hand apologetically. "Haru-chan, we came to tell you that we are starting a swim club!"

"The three of you?" spoke Haruka, his brow quirked. Kou flushed.

"Close but no trophy," said Nagisa without missing a beat, grinning from ear to ear. "The three of _us_, Haru-chan – me, you and Rei-chan!"

"It's not polite to put yourself forward, Nagisa-kun.." sighed Rei unheeded.

"Well, what do you say?"

"Why do I have to join?"

"Because you are the best swimmer we know, and it's all to bring back old times!"

Haru seemed unconvinced, but he had paused to consider it and that was encouragement enough for Nagisa.

"If you join, you can swim all you want, Haru-chan! What do you say to _that?_"

Haru's eyes bore into the floor as his thoughts drifted back to the indoor pool at Samezuka Academy that made his bathtub seem like a lowly prison cell. He closed his eyes and within him, the emptiness stirred, shaking at the memory of that strange, wonderful sensation of floating freely, away from everything and everyone. If he and the water united once and for all, perhaps people like Rin or Tachibana wouldn't be able to get to him anymore. He would be… he could be…

"Whatever. Knock yourself out," he said out loud, still not looking at any of them.

"Really?" cried Nagisa in triumph. "_YESSS!_ We're good to go then! Ah, I'm so excited!"

Haru suppressed a sigh. He felt no anticipation or enthusiasm, but it didn't matter. Things would take their course and he resigned himself to floating along with the tide, if only because resisting it would have been too much effort.


	7. Episode 02: Part 2

At the end of their visit, Haru was persuaded to join Nagisa and Rei on the roof during next day's lunch break, and since he was no longer safe from Tachibana, he had no objection to a legitimate excuse for leaving right after fifth period. Nagisa also extended the invitation to Kou, but she had already promised to eat with her friend Chigusa and unsure yet of what her involvement might be from that point onward, she deemed it best to wait until further news of the swim club – not to mention that staying away afforded her the liberty of forming independent schemes of her own design.

Once they had left, Haruka spent the rest of the day soaking in the tub and toiling with homework, more specifically with the extra study sheet Amakata-sensei handed to him after class as punishment for getting into trouble twice in a row. Her questions regarding the once optional but now obligatory home reading seemed without rhyme or reason and Haru caught himself wondering what Tachibana might say, immediately coloring at the thought that he couldn't get either that guy or Rin out of his head. _Rin was all about this romantic nonsense back in grade school_, and yet he now seemed as coarse and uninspired as Tachibana's amateur artwork. With neither inspiring any input, Haru found he simply had no sure answers to pretentious questions like what the swarm of yellow butterflies symbolized in the short story. Haru had never even seen a swarm in his life and the only butterfly that immediately came to mind had nothing to do with the insect it was named after.

* * *

"Good morning, Nanase-kun," Tachibana greeted him at school the next morning, his tone bright and warm as though yesterday's cold exchange had never happened. Haru had to admire his tenacity. He himself would not have bothered with someone so vehemently protesting any attempt at conversation or friendship and was forced to conclude with a sigh that Tachibana exceeded every expectation Haruka had formed of him except that of having good sense. He nodded to the guy and sat down, strangely relieved Tachibana wasn't sulking like Haru thought he might.

"Was everything okay at the Office yesterday…?" hazarded Tachibana. Haru closed his eyes and drew a deep breath through his nose.

"It was fine."

"You're not in trouble anymore?" came the next question, the guy's tone lightly teasing. Haru's brow twitched and his breath escaped in an indignant huff.

"I am not."

"That's great. I'm glad," said Tachibana, once again managing to sound like he genuinely cared about the well-being of a distant, unreceptive stranger. Haru gave him a hard glance and the boys sitting beyond Tachibana snickered.

"Nanase found a nanny," whispered one to the other and their laughter grew, obnoxious enough to warrant a sharp glare from Haruka. His eyes then shifted to Tachibana, wondering if the guy felt any shame over making himself such an easy target for scorn and ridicule, but Tachibana had since turned his head away to look at the culprits himself. Their laughter soon trailed off into uneasy silence. _Did Tachibana glare at them?_ Haruka couldn't tell. His posture seemed relaxed, his hands laying motionless on his desk, and try as Haru might, he could not imagine those upturned eyebrows and drooping eyelids capable of anything as hard as a glare. When the guy turned back towards the teacher's desk at last, his face betrayed no anger or irritation beyond some lingering discomfort, no more than a slight downward curl of his mouth and Haruka's eyes fell, unable to do anything except ignore the tense atmosphere where the joke had died a horrible death. It was not resurrected again in Tachibana's presence, but that one instance proved enough for him to lose confidence in engaging anyone afterwards, including Haruka. All he heard from Tachibana for the rest of the morning was a few straightforward answers to questions and finally, at lunch break,

"Are you busy, Nanase-kun?", spoken more quietly than his greeting had been.

"I need to go somewhere," replied Haruka, staring at his desk.

"Ah," came the calm reply. Haru lifted his eyes.

"To the roof. You can go anywhere else," he added, and feeling uncomfortable enough, he stood stiffly and left with his lunchbox, followed by amused glances that broke into self-conscious desk-gazing when Tachibana raised and turned his head.

* * *

The others were already waiting for him, Nagisa bouncing on his heels as Haruka settled down by the wall and opened his lunchbox, his expression damp, distant and completely lost on his friends to whom he appeared the same as always: ill humor eternal.

"Alright! Now that Haru-chan is here, I call this swim club meeting to order!" declared Nagisa, pulling his schoolbag closer to take out his pen pouch and some paper.

"We are not technically a swim club yet, Nagisa-kun," risked Rei only to have Nagisa shove some patterned document in his face. Nagisa waved it at Haruka next, his face practically glowing.

"Since everyone's on board, I picked up a new club application form at the Faculty Office this morning," he explained, followed by an awed glance from Rei.

"So that's where you had gone after first period…" he said and Nagisa confirmed it with a nod.

"It's important to get the ball rolling, so I thought, why wait? Now, let's see… the purpose of this club is.. to train our minds and bodies through swimming and improve the school experience."

"I am impressed, Nagisa-kun," said Rei, pushing up his glasses with a small smile of approval. Nagisa giggled.

"There will be three members initially," he carried on, checking the form. "Who should be the captain?"

"I think Haruka-senpai ought to be the captain," suggested Rei. "He is the eldest."

"This isn't about age, Rei-chan. Either of you would be fine."

They looked over to Haruka who had shown greater interest in his cold rice thus far than any part of the conversation unfolding around him and Rei cupped his chin, eyes narrowing as he imagined Haruka dressed in some bright, flashy uniform barking orders to excited speedo-clad recruits. He let out a short, nervous laugh and draped a heavy hand over his face, glad neither of them could see the vaudevillian comedy unfolding inside his head.

"But if you insist, Haru-chan can be the captain and you can be the vice-captain," suggested Nagisa and Haruka finally graced them with his attention, shooting them a sour look.

"Hey, don't just volunteer me like that. I don't want to be the captain."

"Now, now, now," Nagisa hushed him, his tone soothing. "It's no big deal, Haru-chan! The captain is just a figure head – like most kings, for instance. Everybody knows it's the vice-captain who does all the _really_ important work, so don't worry!"

"I believe you have just insulted every king and captain on this planet _and_ relegated all duties and responsibility to me, Nagisa-kun…" huffed Rei, offended yet flattered at the same time at his semi-prestigious position. Haruka remained ambivalent – as long as they expected nothing taxing of him, he felt he might as well accept the empty title that had been so decidedly bestowed on him.

"I'll be the treasurer," continued Nagisa, running his finger down the various rubrics that still needed to be filled, "which means that all we need now is a faculty advisor."

"Any ideas, Nagisa-kun?" asked Rei, wondering if Nagisa had a plan.

"Hehe… I was thinking about asking Ama-chan," replied Nagisa, already one step ahead of them, and even Haru stopped eating to look at him, unsure if he liked the idea when he thought of that extra study sheet.

"Amakata-sensei…?" said Rei, thoroughly unconvinced. Nagisa gave him a mischievous look.

"I heard a crazy story from one of our classmates…"

"Oh, come now, Nagisa-kun, are you seriously giving credit to Nashimoto-kun's stories? His grade average is appalling and spreading rumors goes against my sense of beauty!" argued Rei, folding his hands over his chest. Nagisa let him finish and then flashed his friends a disarming smile.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," he said in a sweet tone, "unless you want me to try the counselor instead."

There was nothing more to say: Option A it was and they soon headed down to the Faculty Office where Amakata-sensei proved just as surprised as Haru and Rei had been.

"What? I can't do it," she said, looking rather confused at the strange request. "Sports aren't my thing. I mean, I teach classical literature," she explained with a smile.

"But I heard that until last year," began Nagisa, commencing with his assault, "you had a job in Tokyo that involved swimsuits."

The effect was immediate: those placid brown eyes turned alarmed and sharp as Amakata all but jumped up from her seat to hush him.

"Hey! Not so loud!" she whispered, her tone now strained and anxious. "Who'd you hear that from?"

"It was Nashimoto-kun from our class," replied Nagisa, thoroughly glad for the convenient scapegoat. This gave Amakata-sensei pause and sensible of their strategic gain, Rei quickly stepped in as Nagisa's foil while Haru stood by the window some ways away, staring out at the sky.

"Amakata-sensei, does this mean that you were perhaps in the industry of swimsuit design?" he asked, trying to play the role of the impressed student. His delivery was not free of artifice, but Amakata Miho proved too nervous to notice.

"What? Y-Yes, you could say that…" she stammered in reply. Rei advanced.

"In that case," he said, putting his hands together, "we would be thrilled to have you advise us about the technology that goes into competitive swimwear!"

"Huh..?!"

"Please advise us!" cried Rei, bowing reverently.

"Eh?!" squeaked Amakata-sensei as Nagisa quickly followed suit.

"Please!" they pleaded aloud, drawing more and more curious glances and successfully cornering their chosen candidate, who threw her hands in the air in defeat.

"If you really need me…" came her weary reply, met by exultant cheers as Haru continued to gaze out the window, saying nothing and feeling little more than irritation. A large, majestic predator was circling outside, mocking him with its victorious screeches as he stood there longing for water like birds longed for the open sky.

* * *

Haruka returned to class sufficiently glad that they had managed to secure an advisor for their cause, an accomplishment that imbued him with enough patience to tolerate his classmates until Tachibana's arrival put a premature end to their open teasing. Tachibana said nothing and looked at no one as he sat down and gathered his textbooks for the next class, but the more he seemed to shrink from attention, the more others stared at him as they chatted in hushed voices. It wasn't hard to guess where their discourse tended and Haru could not help but think that normally those same classmates would have come talk to the guy as they had done before but now they never will, how Tachibana's novelty and luck wore off as quickly as that and he was now being shoe-horned into an invisible pigeon-hole as "the nanny", an officious mother hen whose concern was ridiculous and whose well-meaning attentions were embarrassing and unwanted._ His fault for being meddlesome_, Haruka told himself, only to be scolded by a prickling chill in his heart. Tachibana was new and he had done nothing but show kindness to everyone from what Haru had overheard of his talking to others before the Joke, asking questions and offering help that was politely thanked and turned down just as easily. Perhaps it was the curse of older brothers with younger siblings to take care of – maybe it was the only form of care he knew. Haru turned his head to the window, finding it increasingly harder to look at him.

When school ended, it was Tachibana who stood first, his things already packed.

"Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye, Nanase-kun," he said quietly, receiving only a few stray replies on his way out. The boys from earlier shook their heads after him with a snicker and Haru's gaze slowly settled on them, his eyes hard as steel.

"What's your problem?" he said, his voice low but sharp. They stared at him and then glanced at one another. One of them shrugged his shoulders.

"It was just a joke, Nanase. Testing his sense of humor, that's all. Looks like he doesn't have any."

"He's new. Give him a break," said Haru, hardly knowing why this exchange was happening or why it mattered at all and neither did they.

"Hey, we don't hate the guy, okay?" said the other now, throwing his hands in the air. "We just think it's hilarious how he's fawning over you, I mean talk about singling out the one guy who doesn't care and making yourself look like a desperate idiot."

"Why don't you tell him that_,_ then?" asked Haru, his tone icy. They looked at each other and turned back to Haruka, looking laughably shocked.

"Are you blind, Nanase? The guy's _huge._ You don't mess with that."

"_Then don't,_" said Haruka, shoving his books inside his backpack and storming past them. He didn't see Tachibana anywhere as he left towards the bicycle racks; he must have been long gone though he had never left Haruka's mind. As he rolled down the path by the bay and paddled towards the bottom of the stone stairs, Haruka kept mulling over the events of the morning in his head, how his own thoughtless words might have shamed Tachibana and lessened his chances of being accepted by his classmates with greater readiness than they had shown today. At the same time, he realized with growing guilt that none of it made any sense. The guy was caring, responsible and reliable almost to a fault – wasn't that what people always complained they wanted surrounded by a sea of negligent, fickle and superficial peers? Didn't Haruka himself often get fed up when group assignments left him with all the work, when people forgot to return his pens or compensate him for his help? And yet when someone finally came along who would have been an excellent candidate for any assignment other than art or English (thought Haruka was hardly one to talk since they were about equally poor speakers of foreign languages), whose solicitude promised nothing but advantages, nobody jumped at the chance to secure Tachibana, least of all the person he was trying hardest to engage. _Unlucky, that's what he is_, thought Haruka: a bad judge of character who was now suffering for the choice he had made.

* * *

In the meantime, Kou had spent her lunch break very cheerfully and since nobody had requested her company or assistance at present, the time was ripe for some solitary investigations of her own, starting with a long, boring train ride to Samezuka Academy spent doing homework to get rid of any obligations that could be used against her.

The campus was vast and it took a while to find the dorm complex even with the help of eager high-schoolers whose offers to take Kou on a scenic tour around the academy were met with polite but definite dismissal. The dorms were split into several blocks and Kou consulted her mother's handwritten notes to pick the right one where the receptionist greeted her with a confused look at her unfamiliar school uniform.

"May I help you, young lady?" he asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"Good day," nodded Kou. "I'm Matsuoka Rin's sister. I'm here to see my brother."

The man shifted his newspaper to check the roster.

"Oh. Looks like Matsuoka-kun isn't back yet."

"Really.." said Kou, trying and failing to conceal her disappointment. The man paused.

"You may want to come back later or check the library. Most students spend their time at the library unless they have training."

Kou thanked him and left the dorm, setting her sights on Samezuka's indoor pool next, and unlike the undistinguished and easily mistaken dorm complexes, the large warehouse-like structure was fairly easy to find. She soon repeated her request at the main entrance and was directed to the lounge that ran parallel to the pool, separated by a wall inset with windows all the way down its impressive length.

"Excuse me…" she said quietly as she made her way past several students, her backpack held in front of her – and then stopped as she took in the view and the view took her in. Dozens of swimsuit and speedo-clad young men were stretching to warm up as others stepped onto the blocks and dove in with majestic splashes: a cornucopia of Samezuka's finest.

_Incredible… Totally a prestigious school's swimming club, _she thought as her eyes widened and her hand shot up to cover her face,_ Traps and pecs everywhere! They're gorgeous!_

"Hey, is it you?" came a voice from above and she blinked, glancing up to see another young man in Samezuka's standard black sports uniform, his hair such a stunning autumn red it made his opal eyes seem yellow like a cat's. "The one who's looking for her big brother?"

"Oh! Yes," replied Kou and the guy gave her a good-natured smile that faded away the moment he looked at her more carefully.

"Hold on… You know.. You're pretty cute," he said at last, his cheeks lightly flushed. Kou allowed herself a small, relieved smile.

"Thank you. I'm looking for Matsuoka Rin, my brother."

"Matsuoka?" came the confused reply. "There's nobody named Matsuoka on the swim team."

"Huh?" blurted Kou, completely frozen. There was a pause. The guy cleared his throat.

"Oh, how rude of me! I am the captain of the swim team, Mikoshiba Seijuurou. Pleased to meet you!" he introduced himself, reaching out a hand that Kou took without even realizing she had lifted her hand to return the gesture. Seijuurou cupped and lightly squeezed her hand, releasing it a moment later with a smile. "I am in charge of every member here, and there's nobody called Matsuoka on the team."

"…I see," said Kou and they stood silent for a moment, both immersed in thought.

"The name sounds familiar, though… Has your brother ever been to swim meets, by any chance?" asked Seijuurou, obviously trying to salvage the situation.

"Yes, while he was in grade school," replied Kou, suddenly realizing she hadn't seen Rin swim since the day she attended the relay with her mother and watched Onii-chan win that large, handsome trophy.

"I'll make a note. New talent is always appreciated," said Seijuurou. "Which dorm is he staying at?"

Kou checked her notes for the right building and dorm room. The captain hummed.

"He's in a different building from those on the swim team, but that shouldn't be a problem. I will find a way to talk to him later and personally invite him to join the team!"

He sounded so pleased with this plan and grinned at her so warmly that Kou could feel her heart beat just a little faster, pulsing with hope. If the Captain of Samezuka Academy were to ask him directly, perhaps Onii-chan might join the swim team by the time Nanase-san and his friends started their own club. It was worth a shot and Kou found herself smiling almost too sweetly at Mikoshiba.

"Thank you," she said, her voice now sufficiently animated. Seijuurou looked delighted and took her hands of his own accord this time, giving them a firm but gentle shake.

"You are welcome. Come back anytime!" he replied, letting go to clap his hands at the idle bystanders. "Alright! Those who are waiting to see me, come this way!" he barked and then waved goodbye to Kou, soon disappearing at the other end with half a dozen first-years in tow, one of them peering back at Kou as he followed the others.

* * *

"Is everyone sorted?" asked Captain Mikoshiba and the freshmen nodded, all of them now proud new members of the Samezuka swim team or well on their way to becoming so. "Then just one more thing. Does anyone here know Matsuoka Rin?"

As the young lady appeared to be a first-year student and her brother had to be at least one year older, Mikoshiba entertained little hope of younger students knowing who he was, but after a moment of hesitation, one of the boys raised his hand, looking almost abashed at his own bravery. The pleasant surprise drew Seijuurou's mouth into a hungry smirk.

"The rest of you are dismissed," he said and the door soon closed, leaving him and his informant to themselves.

"First-year student Nitori Aiichiro…" spoke the captain as he looked up the name again from his list of pending recruits where it had been affixed with a large, sweeping checkmark. "One of our newest members on the Samezuka swim team."

"Yes," came the modest reply as Nitori crossed his hands behind his back and straightened to make himself look more presentable, his heart beating fiercely under the standard Samezuka sports jacket. "I don't know Matsuoka-senpai personally, but I have seen him compete before."

"I see," came the calm reply and Nitori's teeth clamped down on his bottom lip, fervently hoping he hadn't disappointed his captain on the very day he joined. He drew a deep breath, his eyes carefully seeking Mikoshiba's.

"Captain Mikoshiba? If I may…"

"Hm?"

"If I may say so, I find it very odd that Matsuoka-senpai isn't on the Samezuka swim team. Senpai is an amazing swimmer..!"

"Is he…?" replied Seijuurou, scratching his chin as he tried and failed to jog his memory. Nitori nodded vehemently and the floodgates finally opened, a torrent of hopefully useful trivia pouring through the moment it was green-lighted.

"I participated in the tournament that I believe was Matsuoka-senpai's last tournament as a grade-schooler," he gushed, his face beaming with fond memories. "My team lost in the preliminaries, but I got to see Matsuoka-senpai win an amazing medley relay with team members Nanase Haruka, Hazuki Nagisa and Ryuugazaki Rei, who all belonged to the same—"

"Hold up," interrupted Seijuurou, cutting him off so sharply Nitori let out a yelp. "Did you say _Nanase Haruka?_"

"Y-yes, he was their freestyle—"

"I remember _him,_" said Seijuurou, furrowing his brow. "I had met him before at regionals myself."

Nitori let out a shaky sigh, relieved that he could supply his captain with valuable information after all. Seijuurou cracked a grin at him.

"Well then," he said, rubbing his hands together, "I have an important job for you, Nitori."

Nitori's eyes grew wide, hardly daring to breathe lest he miss even one tiny detail.

"Since you know Matsuoka so well and you think he should be on this team, why don't you persuade him to come to practice and see me?"

"M-me? Persuade Matsuoka-senpai..? But I, he doesn't really know who I am… and I'm just a simple freshman with no real accomplishments…" stammered Nitori, lowering his eyes. The way he wrung his hands, however briefly, was not lost on Seijuurou.

"I'll give you an incentive," he said in a dangerously sweet tone and Nitori's eyes could not help but wander to his face, his mouth hanging slightly ajar. "If you convince Matsuoka to come to practice _even once_ so I could talk to him and have him join my team, I will personally make sure that you get to share a room with your Senpai at our very own swimmers-only dorm."

Nitori gasped and colored to the tips of his ears, first at the mere idea of being allowed to inhabit the same private space as his idol, and then at himself for straightening and crying "_Yes!_" without a moment's hesitation in what must have appeared to be pathetic desperation to someone who couldn't possibly understand. Nitori quickly bowed and screwed his eyes shut in embarrassment, but no degrading comments or laughter came his way. Seijuurou merely said, his voice a content purr,

"You are dismissed."

* * *

His first practice began ten minutes later, but once it was over, Nitori commenced _Operation: Persuade Senpai_, putting on his best clothes to visit the dorm building where he had followed Rin from afar on the first day of the new trimester, unable to believe his luck and even less able to resist his curiosity. His palms were slick with sweat by the time he made it to the reception booth and knocked on the glass, forcing himself to look the receptionist in the eye.

"C-Captain Mikoshiba would like to speak to M-Matsuoka Rin..senpai…" he blurted to the man, who checked his roster as a mere formality before saying,

"Matsuoka Rin isn't back yet. Do you want to leave him a message?"

"N-no—I mean, yes," said Nitori and received a torn-off notepaper and a pen. He began scribbling furiously and then crossed it all out, his cheeks flushed as he crumpled up the note, stuffed it into his pocket and asked for a new slip that met to the same fate until a few more slips later, the man slammed his entire notepad down in front of him in a way that clearly said, _You had better make the next one your last_. Nitori swallowed, his insides squirming like a pit of snakes. His final, thoroughly censored note simply said in painfully even handwriting,

_Please come to the indoor pool during practice hours at your earliest convenience and ask to see Captain Mikoshiba Seijuurou. Thank you. N.A._

* * *

It was just as well that Nitori had to settle for a message. Had he decided to wait, he would have sat in the lobby for hours to no avail. Once evening came and darkness slowly spread across the sky, Rin was roaming the halls of the derelict Iwatobi Swimming Club once again, having come back for just one more thing to take. In the lounge where Nagisa had found their photograph, there was another picture sitting on the wall in its cracked, time-worn frame, another team of four boys with a trophy. The happiest and proudest of them had short reddish-brown hair, his face forever frozen in cheerful laughter, and the more Rin stared at him, the more his eyes gleamed and clouded until he closed them in shame, reaching out blindly to pluck the photograph off its nail. The frame was so badly damaged it gave way and snapped in two the moment he pried its back open and the entire thing landed in the garbage bin in the corner, the photograph tucked carefully inside Rin's pocket.


	8. Episode 02: Part 3

Just before Rin slipped away from Samezuka to haunt his old swimming club one last time, Haruka set out on a rather late shopping trip and soon unloaded his groceries onto the kitchen counter, placing everything within easy reach. His afternoon bath had been spent in careful meditation over the events of the past few days, and just before dinner, it produced the stunning conclusion that the answer to all his problems was his _piéce de résistance_, mackerel cooked in miso. His stomach concurred and Haruka trusted his instincts: it would be the very thing he needed, precisely what he had been looking for.

He soon put the kettle on and took out his bamboo drainer and a frying pan, placing two large fillets of mackerel into the drainer and chopping some ginger root while he waited for the water to boil. Once the kettle gave a cheerful whistle, its contents were poured over the fish that was left to simmer while Haru heated up some water, soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake and sugar in the pan, mixing slowly with a small whisk. His fillets were laid carefully into the broth and covered with a lid to let the flavors deepen while Haruka prepared the miso, his face serene as he stirred it smooth and creamy. He had always found cooking soothing, almost therapeutic after a long day, and when he at last sampled what would be tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch, his lips twitched into a faint smile that disappeared a little too soon when he thought of all the troubles these poor, innocent fillets were supposed to remedy.

_One more day and this week would be over, _that was the promise that truly kept Haruka in tolerable spirits after five consecutive days of bad luck starting on the very night he had excused himself from attending the opening ceremony just to avoid others for a little while longer. Oh, how naive he was in retrospect. His world had been under siege ever since by every single person around him: Nagisa, Rei, Rin, Kou… and Tachibana. Haru soon slipped into bed for the night but lay awake for an hour longer, his thoughts fluctuating between the five of them as the great kaleidoscope of his mind spun round and round, recycling the broken mosaics of his memory.

* * *

The next morning found Haruka in class earlier than anyone else, sitting at his desk perfectly still and his eyes roaming over gray-washed skies beyond the window. It was a moment of peace, obscenely rare and all the more appreciated for it, but peace was as fragile a creature as time was inexorable in its eternal forward march. He had not been sitting for five minutes together when his classmates started drifting in one by one, the desks soon all occupied – except for Tachibana's. Haru's eyes switched back and forth between the ownerless chair and the window as the minutes ticked away, occasionally shooting the jokers from yesterday an accusing glare that they returned with defensive shrugs of their shoulders.

Tachibana's empty chair had turned quite a few heads and drawn curious glances, but his conspicuous absence invited more jokes than worries or inquiries and Haru turned his head away, glaring helplessly into space. Was the guy sensitive after all, sensible of the fact that others were making fun of him behind his back and unable to face them? Or was he sick? _..Did something happen to him?_ Class was starting any minute now and Haruka felt strangely exposed in his corner seat, no longer shielded by the other's larger frame. The irony of so often wishing Tachibana away and yet feeling almost uncomfortable the moment he went missing irked Haruka. The guy was unreliable after all, even if he proved predictable.

Class started and they were well into discussing the second math problem on the blackboard when the door slid open and in stepped Tachibana, completely out of breath and his backpack sagging from his shoulders. Haruka's head whipped up the moment he heard the door and their eyes met, staring at each other as Tachibana gasped for breath. The next moment, the teacher smacked the desk with his ruler and the guy flinched, turning around to bow and apologize.

"You are over ten minutes late! What is the meaning of this?!" demanded Nakano-sensei. Tachibana bowed his head even lower.

"I'm sorry, Sensei. I had to help my siblings who go to a different school. I tried to hurry, but I wasn't fast enough.. I apologize," he said, his voice low and even.

"Sit down, Tachibana. Don't let me catch you late again," said Nakano-sensei in a sharp tone, pointedly turning away from the troublemaker to the still untangled math problem on the blackboard. Tachibana quickly sank into his seat, digging out his course book and pens to give as little cause for displeasure as possible, and for the next half an hour, he so immersed himself in the role of the penitent, attentive student that he failed to notice how Haruka glanced over to him again and again, just to make sure he was still there.

* * *

When the bell rang and class was dismissed, a student nearby turned towards Tachibana and as if on cue, some of the girls did, too.

"You had a good run this morning, Tachibana," the guy teased him and the girls giggled. The addressee showed no sign of annoyance but Haru's features hardened almost instantly. "How old are your twins again?"

"Ten," replied Tachibana. "They go to Iwatobi Elementary," he added, either not bothering to correct the odd phrasing or not noticing it at all, but when the two students from yesterday picked up on its meaning and started snickering, his head turned towards them almost in slow motion, no longer smiling. Their laughter began faltering and soon broke up into tense silence as Tachibana leaned backwards and straightened his impressive shoulders while Haru learned slightly forward, staring coldly and almost expectantly at the boys from behind Tachibana's chest.

"Must be great kids," said one of them, smiling nervously. Tachibana's eyes narrowed.

"They are," he said, his tone heavy enough to sound almost dark as he stared at them, and Haru felt oddly satisfied when they turned their heads uncomfortably and eventually left for the hallway. The student who started the teasing sank back into his chair properly and the girls stopped giggling, though their reasons seemed more ambivalent as one of them now eyed Tachibana with what appeared to be a mixture of awe and approval. Nevertheless, showing steel had much the same effect as his showing kindness – everyone went back to minding their own business, paying no more attention to Tachibana.

Well, almost everyone, even though Tachibana was now undoubtedly there to stay, at least until lunch time when he fished out his bento and left the classroom without a word or so much as looking back at Haruka, who tucked his own lunch bag under his arm a moment later and entered the hallway to go after him. He was directed towards the backyard with its artificial brook and silk-soft grass and followed the guy at a comfortable distance, almost at the door now as Tachibana drew closer to the brook on the other side of the schoolyard…

"_Haru-chaaan!_" cried Nagisa upon swooping into view between Haruka and his target, having come over from the other building with Rei to try and catch their friend for lunch. Tachibana skidded to a halt in the distance and turned back to see two boys practically ambushing Haruka, but turned his head just as quickly to keep on walking. Whether he was laughing or not was impossible to discern, but it didn't matter: Haru glared hail and ice in his general direction regardless.

"We were just looking for you, Haru-chan!" chirped Nagisa and immediately attached himself to Haruka's arm, unaware of the blizzard raging above his head. "Guess what? We gave Ama-chan our application form this morning! The school board's going to discuss it this afternoon!"

"Haruka-senpai… are you alright?" asked Rei, his tone cautious. Nagisa finally took a good look at Haru's face but must have seen nothing beyond shock because he went on to say, his voice rainbows and sunshine,

"He cannot believe how efficient we are! Isn't that right, Haru-chan?"

Haru finally stopped staring into the distance that claimed Tachibana and forced himself to look at Nagisa.

"I'm fine," he said, taking a step forward. "I have to go."

"Are we interrupting something, Haru-chan?" asked Nagisa in an innocent tone, suddenly more interested in Haruka than his own good news. "Are you on your way to meet someone, perhaps..?"

Haru's brow twitched.

"…No," he replied, amazed at how their eager attempt to catch him off-guard conveniently caused them to lose sight of the person they were actually longing to see.

"Then let's have lunch on the roof again!"

"If Haruka-senpai really has no prior engagements…" said Rei, looking sheepish. Haru gave him a look.

"Whatever."

There was no reasoning with his own bad luck; he would just have to catch Tachibana after their last class, and so he spent the rest of his lunch break staring wistfully towards the trees as Nagisa quizzed him and occasionally followed his eyes, to no avail. Haru let his gaze wander around just to keep him guessing, amusing himself with the idea that of at least two dozen second-years from three different classrooms spending their lunch break down at the park, Nagisa might have actually looked at Tachibana several times and never once guessed who he was.

* * *

Haruka returned to class just moments before sixth period began and arrived to Tachibana sitting at his desk, back straight and eyes fixed on the blackboard as though he had not stopped playing the role of the model student since Math class. The distant look on his face seemed unnatural, almost alarmingly so, and Haru found himself walking past him at a much slower pace than usual to force his attention elsewhere and dislodge that strange blank mask he had hidden behind. It didn't work. Tachibana's eyes flickered but he barely raised them and Haruka dropped into his chair like a bag of rocks, glaring into space. What was the guy hoping for at the threshold of his self-constructed pigeon hole, to clean his slate by exercising restraint eight million years too late? Haruka would have rather he were stupid, and obnoxious.. and warmly, unreservedly cheerful. The troublemakers beyond Tachibana were in loud chatter over some new anime series and Haruka could not help but think it a happy liberty neither of them deserved, not when a boy of ten times their worth sat in silence and enjoyed himself so little.

As their last class was about to end, Haruka began to assess his situation and observed with relief that Tachibana didn't seem to be in a hurry at all. While others began putting away their pens or fidgeting with the handles of their backpacks, he sat relaxed and focusing on the assignment they were being given for the weekend, and when class was dismissed, he let the others pour out the door in droves and stampede down the halls to extend their precious free time by just a few more minutes. Only then did he start gathering his things at a leisurely place, as though he were purposefully lingering to let the rest of class move ahead, far away from him with no chances of more unpleasant experiences. Normally, his plan would have succeeded, but Haruka lingered too, his things already packed and his hands tucked under the desk. His time had come at last: it was now or never.

"Tachibana."

He had called him by his name for the first time and it was almost comical to watch the guy twitch and stop everything he was doing, slowly turning to Haruka.

"Nanase-kun..?" he began to say and the next moment, a small transparent plastic container was held out to him as Haru lowered his eyes, unsure if he could do this with a straight face.

"For the sandwich," he said quietly, his arm twitching forward a little more. Tachibana stared at him, his mouth a small O.

"I… you're very kind, but you didn't have to give me anything for it, Nanase-kun," he said, his voice softening as he looked at the container that seemed to hold rice and some soggy fish on the side. "Really, it's fine—"

"Are you going to take it or not?" said Haru, finally giving him an annoyed look. "I'm giving it to you so we become even. You don't have to _eat_ it," he said, his face contorting at the thought of good mackerel going to waste. Tachibana's upturned eyebrows ran higher, but he soon broke into a grin and reached out, relieving Haru of the mackerel cooked in miso. He took it into both hands, turning it about as though he had never seen anything like it. Haru colored. Was the guy trying to find fault with his cooking?

"Are we even?" he asked impatiently and Tachibana lifted his head, his eyes brighter than Haru had seen them in a while.

"We are," he said, his grin widening. "Thank you… Haru."

Haruka made a face. "Don't call me that. Call me by my last name."

"But, wouldn't it be easier to just call each other by our first names?" said the other, sounding painfully sensible again. "Tachibana is a mouthful and while Nanase-kun is fine, I think I'd rather call you Haru, and then you could call me Makoto. Though I suppose I could call you Haruka…"

Haru's shoulders tensed at the unfamiliar address that seemed almost as offensive as—

"…or should I call you _Haru-chan?_" continued Tachibana, now just looking plain amused. Haru narrowed his eyes.

"If you call me that, I will never speak to you again."

"Well then, I'll definitely go with Haru," replied Tachibana, soon lifting his backpack to his shoulders while his hand cradled the container to his side just as Haruka had done earlier in search for him, Haruka who now stood in front of him dumbstruck and thoroughly bested.

"Thank you again… _Haru_. See you on Monday," said Tachibana as he cocked his head to the side, beaming brightly. Haru could only hum in reply as the guy left the classroom, and when he followed a few moments later and turned in the opposite direction, he couldn't decide what offended him more: Nagisa messing up his perfect opportunity earlier, Tachibana tricking him now or the way Haruka's name rolled so easily off his tongue, spoken with such tenderness it turned his cheeks crimson.

At least he didn't have to see anyone for two days. Nagisa, Rei and Kou made no unexpected visits and nobody else knew his address or his number – as long as he stayed inside, he would be safe, free to contemplate just what he had gotten himself into when he tried to settle the score and instead managed to somehow convince Tachibana that they were slowly becoming acquaintances, even friends. The idea of committing himself to someone again, of exposing himself to the danger of another letdown filled Haru with constant unease and now it was almost imperative that Nagisa and Rei never meet Tachibana – if the guy didn't latch on himself, Nagisa would attach him by sheer force of will. He texted Haruka on Sunday night, telling him to _Meet me and Rei-chan at the Faculty Office at lunch time. See you there, Haru-chan!_ and Haru was almost certain he was going to go back to class a captain by the time they would be done.

* * *

"Good morning, Haru," Tachibana greeted him on Monday, his voice quiet but nonetheless drawing considerable attention in a classroom where nobody had ever called Haruka anything except 'Nanase'. Nobody laughed this time, too shocked or too much caught up in speculation as to when and how that happened, especially when Haru put up no resistance beyond shooting Tachibana a look that did nothing to dampen the smiles of the other.

For the first time, they engaged in short, loose conversation during breaks. Tachibana inquired about Haru's weekend and learned it was okay; asked who made the excellent fish and was told Haruka made it himself; thanked him with more praise and received a hum in reply. Everyone around them seemed intrigued by this development but teased and gossiped little, for which Haru was glad – but come lunch time, Tachibana managed to give them more and more things to talk about.

"Here, Haru," he said, placing the container from Friday on the other's desk with something snuggly wrapped inside. "It's mochi. I'm not sure if you like sweet things, but.."

Haru looked up at him, his eyes large and worried. Was this really happening? Was he now caught in a potentially expanding chain of exchanges with Tachibana, each new turn eliciting another until he might have to spend every day cooking just to appease this guy?

"You don't have to give me anything in return," said Tachibana soothingly, as though he had read Haruka's mind. "I went to pick up my siblings after school that day and they were so hungry we ended up sharing your fish to tide them over until dinner.. This is to say thank you for actually doing us a favor," he explained with a humble smile, and by the time he finished, Haru's shoulders slackened, his head strangely and pleasantly empty.

"Oh," he managed to say and slowly gathered the container to his bento. "..I have to go now."

"See you later, Haru," replied Tachibana, sounding perfectly content and Haruka left the classroom with floating steps, calmer than he felt he had any right to be.

Nagisa and Rei were already waiting for him outside the Faculty Office, their own lunches dangling from their hands to be eaten right after.

"Hey, Haru-chan!" chirped Nagisa, his eyes slipping to Haruka's parcels a moment later as though he were looking for another 'sandwich', any small clue to the new friend that continued to remain a mystery to him and Rei. "Ooh, what's that?"

Haruka looked down and his arm tightened just a little more around his lunch. "Mochi."

"Can I have some?"

"No."

"Aww..!"

"Nagisa-kun, we have more important matters to attend to than mere food… No disrespect to your mochi, Haruka-senpai," said Rei as he motioned to the door, obviously waiting for the appointed captain to lead his team. Haru shrugged his shoulders and entered with the two of them right behind him, proceeding to Amakata Miho's desk in single file and lining up in front of her.

"Good day, boys," she greeted them, lifting a piece of paper off her desk. "Regarding the swim club charter that you submitted… After strict review by the faculty… it was approved!" she announced, holding it out for them to see. Rei was so overwhelmed he couldn't speak and Haru offered no comment, but Nagisa was loud enough for all three of them.

"Awesome!" he cried, pumping his fists. "I knew we could count on a former swimwear company employee!"

"Th-That's right… This is what I can do when I put my mind to it," said Amakata-sensei, recovering quickly. "However, a school organization is required to have four members, so you'll have to find one more person."

The boys peered at each other, their confidence wavering for a moment but the problem forgotten the moment they turned back to their new advisor for further news.

"And there's one more condition," finished Amakata Miho, holding up the charter to her face like a shield.

"No problem!" cried Nagisa.

"I am ready to do anything for our swim club!" said Rei, straightening in salute.

* * *

Ten minutes later, they were staring at the most pitiful pool in existence, littered with garbage and infested by vegetation growing from every crack that time had clawed into the concrete.

"Wow, so much nature," said Nagisa, staring awestruck as the wind playfully picked up and carried off a few strips of paper right in front of him. Rei had been staring at the jungle below in horror and just barely managed to force out if this meant what he thought it meant.

"Yes, you must restore this pool to a usable state," declared Amakata Miho, her tone as light as her non-involvement policy was apparent. Haruka took a deep breath and one step backwards but was caught at once, his hand seized by his teacher in an iron grip.

"You're not allowed to run away ever again, Nanase-kun," she said cheerfully.

"I-Indeed… the captain must lead in example, Haruka-senpai," stammered Rei, his eyes now covered to protect his sense of beauty abominably abused by weed and debris. Haru huffed but almost immediately set down his bento and container, careful to stack his lunch on top of the mochi to Nagisa's chagrin. He crouched and climbed into the pool, rolling his sleeves back – for all intents and purposes, it was still a pool, and the sooner it was restored, the sooner Haruka would swim.

"Wait, Haru-chan!" Nagisa called after him as torn leaves and stems started flying left and right. "You don't have to start right away..!"

"Stop talking and help me," was Haruka's reply, soon tackling an entire bush sprouting from the cracks.

"Let's eat lunch first, okay?! We could talk about this over mochi!"

"No."

"_Haru-chaaan…!_"

* * *

When Haruka returned to class an hour later, the mochi was gone (eaten right under Nagisa's nose as punishment for not helping) and his hands were now a sickly shade of green that laughed in the face of soap and water. Tachibana quirked an eyebrow.

"Were you handling plants just now?" he asked, apparently no stranger to grass stains and their ilk. Haruka hummed.

"Maybe you should bring a pair of rubber gloves next time," suggested Tachibana, and as he was once again making too much sense, Haru found himself nodding in agreement.

"…Do you need any help, Haru?" asked Tachibana. Haruka finally looked him in the eye.

"No," he said quickly, and then added, feeling prompted, "It's for the swim club. We have to fix a pool."

"I didn't know Iwatobi High School had a swim club," mused Tachibana, shooting Haru a curious glance.

"It does now," replied Haruka, unsure what to make of Tachibana's blind offer and only secure in the thought that several weeks of manual labor would ensure he'd have little time to spend with his new acquaintance, which was what he wanted all along…

"Congratulations, then. And good luck," said Tachibana and Haru hummed again, his eyes drifting to the window in thought. Having a reputation of being talented and reliable, his help was often solicited for school assignments and even extra-curricular work, but no one had ever offered _him_ any help before. He couldn't help but wonder if Tachibana would have agreed to help de-weed an entire swimming pool had Haru said yes, but something in his heart of hearts told him that of all people, Tachibana might have and might have done it gladly, just for kindness' sake. It was a strange feeling, neither good or bad – it was simply something new.


	9. Episode 02: Part 4

Haru's premonition proved correct – at least in part. What awaited the three of them was indeed several weeks of tedious manual labor as he, Rei and Nagisa started gathering garbage and plucking weed from the entire pool area, only to discover along the way that it also needed repairs and a few coats of paint to be truly serviceable. It was daunting and more than fit the definition of 'too much effort', but Haruka's resolve only seemed to grow every hour and by the time he had arrived home after their first official cleaning session, his decision to sacrifice the better part of his lunch break every day was final. Nagisa and Rei decided they would put in as much time after school as they could spare from other obligations, and so greeted Haruka from the depths of the pool at the end of the next school day, where the captain simply carried on what he had been doing for fifty minutes during his lunch hour, the remaining ten spent on food not to try his endurance too much. He didn't expect Nagisa or Rei to be so strict with themselves; a scant hour of solitude and productive repose was more than welcome and helped clear his head each time it filled with troubled thoughts of Rin and mixed feelings about Tachibana, both washed away by the faraway promise of water, _water, __**water.**_

As for thinking that Haruka would thus spend less and less time with Tachibana and eventually drift apart from the acquaintance he had never asked for and still wasn't sure he wanted, he could not have been further from the truth. While Tachibana made no attempts to follow him or force his company on Haru, he never let him go without wishing him good luck and quickly became an inexhaustible source of support and encouragement that never ceased to surprise and amaze Haruka.

From that day forward, they spent every school day in loose conversation. Once they said their good mornings, Tachibana always made a point to inquire about his progress and since Haruka had turned down his help yet taken his advice to use rubber gloves, he repaid Tachibana by talking a great deal about the pool. He described how it looked like at first and what difference cleaning away just the garbage had made, how they could finally see one corner of the pool after plucking for several hours, and what sort of repairs they might have to do once they uncovered all the cracks. It was more than Haruka ever thought his taciturn nature would allow, more than anyone could reasonably stand to hear about something as tedious as restoration work, but whenever he though he had exhausted all there was to say about the matter, Tachibana asked him questions that invited easy answers and Haruka's words kept trickling forth. Tachibana asked Haru if he had ever done construction work the likes of which he felt were necessary and learned that Haruka once made a path with bricks and cement not to track mud into his house from the garden. Haru considered it a rather mundane feat, but the guy was amazed, thoroughly impressed; Haruka had never known a more attentive or gratifying listener when he thought of how loud and chatty Nagisa was or the way Rei tended to interrupt and argue when he disagreed with even the slightest detail of what was being said. There was something about Tachibana that made conversation simple, made the words feather-light and coaxed them from Haruka like one draws a breath without thinking, until he even admitted to Tachibana when the guy asked about their shopping venture that Haruka was banned from the biggest home improvement store in Iwatobi for climbing into the display tank while everyone else was too busy looking for cement and paint to pay any attention to him. Tachibana was all shock and chided him for it, which annoyed Haruka, but he also chuckled in amusement and somehow his laugh sounded more and more bearable every day, all the more so because the others' jabs and snide laughter could no longer diminish its light-hearted ring one bit.

As if their work on the pool weren't enough, Haruka and Nagisa also began frequenting the Iwatobi Art Club after school to produce posters for whenever they would finally be in a sound position to start recruitment. Rei also accompanied them from time to time, but only to encourage and evaluate their efforts rather than do any work of his own – his artistic talents were about equal to Tachibana's and his sense of beauty prevented him from attempting anything that would inevitably result in failure. Nagisa, however, wasn't afraid in the slightest: instead of squeezing his meager knowledge of perspective and proportions dry, he went bold with neon-bright Picassos that made Rei's hair stand on edge. As for Tachibana, he was obviously no contender, but once he learned of Haru's endeavors, he often asked to see his posters and never failed to praise his talent for rendering anatomically correct figures and breathtaking backgrounds with ease and good taste. Indeed, Haruka proved to be so gifted that what eventually ended their cooperation with their fellow artists was a scuffle between the two clubs over who had greater need of Nanase Haruka, and had it not been for Nagisa and Rei's excellent physical condition, the Art Club might have succeeded in carrying off Haruka as their most coveted prize.

Within one week, Haruka's mind had been all but consumed by his extra-curricular work, his head full of restoration plans and pleasant prospects he used to keep carefully in check and now reveled in with little to no restraint. It was a gradual and mysterious new development, one for which Haruka placed the blame entirely on Tachibana's shoulders for erecting a safety net that held up Haruka whenever his grip on reality started to slip. It began with a course book forgotten at home, for which he was scolded by the guy and then handed Tachibana's book to read before class, then continued with too little mackerel in Haru's bento that was quickly supplemented with some maki, and though Haruka's halfhearted preparation for school never reached ridiculous extremes, it put Tachibana on his guard and Haruka at newfound ease where anything that was going wrong simply had to be voiced and somehow it would be fixed. It was almost a game of testing Tachibana's resourcefulness…

"Haru? Is everything alright?" asked Tachibana one day when Haruka's was rummaging in his backpack for far too long considering it was already lunch time.

"Gloves…" muttered Haruka, his hand sinking uselessly into his school bag over and over in search of his rubber gloves that he had removed at home to clean and air out, and then promptly left for school without them. Not that any lack of rubber gloves, lunch or school material would have prevented him from his continued efforts of de-weeding the pool, but still… what a nuisance. Haruka made a face. Tachibana sighed.

"Here, Haru," he said and opened his desk, producing an unopened packet of brand new rubber gloves that he held out to Haruka with a look of fond exasperation. "I thought you might need these sooner or later."

Haruka stared at him but before he could protest, Tachibana simply dropped the packet onto his bento boxes to make his decision easier.

"Now hurry up or you won't have time to eat and work!"

…except Tachibana's resourcefulness knew no bounds, not to mention it was the sort of game where Haruka's victory would have signified a loss either way, and as much as he could have lived with his own mistakes, he might have worried, just a little, if he had inadvertently made Tachibana feel like he failed when the guy had obviously given the situation a great deal of thought. How Tachibana managed to pay so much attention to Haru's potential needs when he already had himself and a pair of ten-year-olds to look after, Haruka couldn't even guess, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that he did, and he was reliable and useful in a way nobody else before him had ever been. Tachibana even went so far as to defend Haru to teachers for being late to sixth period ("He has uh, school-related obligations during lunchtime that take him further away from the classroom, Sensei.."), and when Haruka turned up some minutes afterwards, all he received from the front desk was "I know, Nanase, sit down," and a sheepish smile from the enabler himself. _Meddlesome busybody, _thought Haruka each time, but as he walked back to his desk, his steps felt lighter than air.

And so work was progressing well, very well. Within a few weeks, Nagisa, Rei and Haruka were cutting the foliage peeking through the fence links, smearing cement into the cracks, smoothing the sides with easels and painting the walls. The pair continued to only come in the afternoons, leaving Haruka to an hour of peaceful work all by himself; he was never truly alone, however, least of all in spirit. Unbeknownst to him, Tachibana watched him from the roof every day at lunch break almost from the very beginning, just barely able to distinguish that small figure in the distance but smiling at him all the same.

* * *

In the three weeks it had taken for his former friends to establish a brand new swim club and restore a good deal of the once abandoned pool area at Iwatobi High School, Rin did little more than idle at Samezuka Academy as far as his swimming career was concerned. He had received "N.A.'s" note on his return that very night, but merely tucked it into his other pocket and tossed it onto the desk when he retired to his room. The note clearly didn't come from the Captain himself and "at your earliest convenience" could hardly be considered an urgent call, especially from someone who didn't even bother to attach their name. It was undoubtedly a student, but as nobody in his new class shared the initials, the mysterious messenger remained "N/A" in Rin's mind along with the contents of his note – for a while longer at least.

He lay down on the bed, staring down his father's younger self in the photograph he had taken from the Iwatobi Swimming Club. The chipped-tooth smile of that boy in all his grade-school glory soon worked its magic on him, dripping firm resolve into the son that outlived him and inherited his legacy too suddenly, too soon. Rin closed his eyes. If the Captain of the Samezuka Academy swim team was really interested in him, a few weeks hardly mattered. Rin would generously let himself be persuaded before long.

Fortunately for him, the captain and his messenger exercised exemplary patience towards the wayward prodigy. Nitori could hardly be faulted for being lenient and excusing his elusive Senpai at every practice, but he need not have bothered; Mikoshiba persevered for more reasons than simply wishing to secure another talented swimmer for the team. He had run into Kou only once since their meeting and was sorry he had no good news to give her, having hoped to see that sweet smile again upon personally informing the young lady of her brother's promotion. The promise of that smile and the enormous responsibility of having received her e-mail address for related correspondence was incentive enough to pursue the stubborn student that seemed to maintain good relations with no one, not even his fellow classmates, some of whom were on the swim team themselves. It was an utter mystery. Had it not been for the excellent sister, Seijuurou might have wondered far more often if he and Nitori were being unfairly imposed upon by an antisocial recluse who showed no inclination to grace them with his much-coveted attention.

* * *

As the pool was slowly but surely approaching its new, clean state, it was time to put Nagisa and Haru's recruitment posters to the test. They first made their debut on bulletin-boards and classroom news boards and then started appearing in the hallways fixed onto every available space that wasn't protected by school property effacement laws, but that wasn't the extent of their advertising. After some consideration, Nagisa and Rei decided to dedicate at least half of their lunch hour to promoting the club, waiting at more crowded areas in swim caps and goggles to wave their kickboards at unsuspecting passersby.

"Hello there! Are you interested in joining the newly formed Iwatobi Swim Club?" said Rei as he roamed the halls hoping to catch students off-guard, but many of them had already joined the clubs they were interested in, or worse, had joined the track team, which would have been entirely too taxing to coordinate with swim practice and tournament dates. He recognized one of his lost causes as a second-year he had bumped into some weeks before, but the fine specimen could not be persuaded even after a much longer string of apologies, which were cordially but very nervously dismissed.

"Hey, guys! Let's have fun swimming together!" cried Nagisa back at their own building, nudging his penguin kickboard at weary first-years who merely replied,

"Why would you want to swim in a pool when the ocean's right over there..?"

"If you join now, you'll receive a year's supply of Iwatobi's mascot character, Iwatobi-chan!" announced Nagisa a few days later, waving around a hand-made strap prototype of what at first glance appeared to be a chicken in a speedo.

"No, thanks," replied the crowd, obviously mean and unappreciative of Haruka's hard efforts, who was rather easily roped into carving some two dozen wooden figurines of Iwatobi-chan for greater incentive. He was still working on them when Rei and Nagisa collapsed inside the changing rooms of their future pool one afternoon, both of them thoroughly demoralized.

"I can't believe nobody wants to join," whined Nagisa, lying down on one of the benches. Rei was sitting in a chair right next to him, his head pressed against the backrest.

"It looks like our efforts might have been in vain… I cannot believe we restored the entire pool area for nothing..!"

"Don't say that!" Nagisa scolded him, the two exchanging worried glances at each other and then at Haruka, who seemed completely engrossed in his art project and would hopefully remain deaf to their wails for a little while longer. Rei and Nagisa sighed in relief.

"Maybe we're not exciting enough…" mused Nagisa, his hands quickly landing on Rei's shoulders with twinkling eyes. "Rei-chan! I think it's time we swapped your boring high school uniform for a swimsuit, to generate greater interest!"

"Wh-what are you saying, Nagisa-kun?! Would you have me pose in nothing but a legskin in front of the student body? There _are_ limits to a vice-captain's dedication, you know!"

"Aaawww, don't say that…!" whined Nagisa, but no amount of head nudges and burrowing against Rei's shoulder could make him change his mind. "Come ooon… take one for the team..!"

"_Absolutely not!_"

"Then you have left us no choice, Rei-chan," said Nagisa, furrowing his brow. "If you won't put your body on the line, then Ama-chan has to do it in your place!"

"What are you talking about, Nagisa-kun..?"

"We'll advertise the fact that Ama-chan is our advisor and tell everyone they'll get to see her in a swimsuit if they join!" said Nagisa, dead-set on his emergency plan despite the frown that met his words as Rei fixed his glasses.

"_Brilliant_ plan, Nagisa-kun," he said acridly, "I'm sure _absolutely nothing_ could go wrong."

"_**Excuse me…**_" came an ice cold voice from behind their backs, startling Rei into immediate regret he even dared use sarcasm instead of swift and thorough rejection of Nagisa's crazy schemes, and Nagisa seemed to share his regret for once. Amakata-sensei loomed over both, glaring daggers as she went on to say, "If you do that, I'll quit immediately! I swore to myself that I'd _never put on a swimsuit again!_" She paused to flash them a smile that promised cheerful murder. "_Understood?_ Are we clear?"

"_Crystal,_" breathed Rei and Nagisa. In the back, Haruka resumed work on Iwatobi-chan #17 without any indication he had noticed them at all.

* * *

Now that the general area no longer looked like a disaster site and the boys had been put in their place, Amakata-sensei graciously decided to join them more often under the title "advisory supervision", nestling comfortably under her umbrella in a folding chair as the swim club mixed, applied and smoothed cement into the holes and cracks of the pool.

"It's cleaned up rather nicely," she said to them one day as she sunk into her chair again to enjoy the pleasant view.

"Can't you get out of that chair for once and give us a hand?" complained Nagisa, motioning towards the cement he was mixing in the middle while Rei and Haruka were busy working on the pool walls.

"Do you realize what you're saying?" Amakata-sensei scolded him, dangling her foot daintily beneath the umbrella. "The UV rays are brutal this time of year. You're still young so it's not an issue, but I have to be more careful."

Nagisa dismissed her concerns, but Rei paused to wonder if he should have applied sunscreen before he set out to work, not having properly considered the dangers of prolonged exposure to the sun. He turned to his Senpai and asked for his opinion but the reply was no more than a vague shrug of Haruka's shoulders that told Rei nothing and left him stranded as his attempts at dialogue so often seemed to do. Nagisa always initiated rather easily no matter how many times Haruka failed to respond in kind, but being so used to someone chipper and talkative, Rei simply felt like a rubber battering ram bouncing off the same impenetrable wall.

They ran into Kou a few days before and invited her to come by and check the pool, and on that day she finally heeded their invitation, soon entering the area with a shopping bag of refreshments dangling from her arm.

"Oh wow, it's all cleaned up now!" she said as she neared Amakata-sensei, sounding thoroughly impressed.

"Yoo hoo!" cried Nagisa when he spotted her, waving happily. "Are you here to help, Gou-chan?"

"_Kou-chan-san_, Nagisa-kun..!"

"You heard him!" snapped Kou. "I told you to call me Kou! Otherwise you don't get any of this," she continued, holding up a can of soda.

"What? You can't be serious!" whined Nagisa, but in the end, he thanked 'Kou-chan' as he picked out a can of Pocket Sweat and gulped half of it down in one go. Kou went round to give everyone a drink, and since the cement had to dry, Rei was now free to abandon his station to paint the fence for a while and did so gladly to exchange awkward silence for solitary work. Kou followed him.

"I'll leave your drink here, Rei-kun," she said as she set the can down a few feet away where nobody would bump into it.

"Thank you very much, Kou-san," replied Rei, setting newspaper below the fence to catch any drips of green paint. After a moment's hesitation, Kou clasped the hems of her skirt on each side and tucked it carefully under herself, crouching down by Rei's side.

"Rei-kun… can I ask you a question?"

Rei adjusted his glasses. "Of course."

"How come Haruka-senpai didn't start a swim club before you two came here and asked him? I mean, he's such a good swimmer and this is his second year. I would have thought he'd start a club as soon as he started going to Iwatobi High School."

"I'm afraid I don't know the answer, Kou-san," said Rei, shaking his head. "We asked Haruka-senpai on the night of the opening ceremony if he wanted to swim with us and he said he had quit swimming competitively. He never mentioned why or when he had quit, but if he came to that decision years ago, that would explain why he wasn't interested in forming or joining a club."

"So he didn't want to swim at all."

"Probably, though it's so hard to imagine. The Haruka-senpai I knew never seemed to get enough of swimming the front crawl. That stroke was all he ever talked about, he literally said, _I only swim freestyle_. I don't understand at all."

"I wonder if my brother's the same way…" risked Kou.

"What do you mean?" asked Rei, creasing his brow.

"I was looking for my brother at Samezuka Academy a few weeks ago and found out he's not on the swim team. He transferred to a professional swimming school but didn't join the swim club, and when I went to see him last Wednesday, he was still not a member."

"That cannot be right, Kou-san," said Rei, looking shocked. "I mean, Rin-senpai himself challenged Haruka-senpai at the Samezuka Academy indoor pool and—"

"He must have lost," sighed Kou, her eyes clouding. "So that's why he's given up on swimming…"

"You are mistaken, Kou-san," said Rei, pressing his glasses into place again. "Rin-senpai didn't lose to Haruka-senpai. He won."

"What?!" cried Kou, just as shocked as Rei had been. "My brother won?!"

"It was a clear victory. Rin-senpai didn't tell you…?"

"He didn't respond, so I thought he was upset about losing," owned Kou.

"Now that you mention it, Kou-san, it was really strange… Rin-senpai didn't seem very pleased that he had won. When Haruka-senpai congratulated him on his victory, Rin-senpai nearly strangled him with his own goggle straps! Nagisa-kun and I were bewildered, but before we could interfere and separate them, one of the teachers found us trespassing and we were forced to leave."

"That's strange… and why would Haruka-senpai say that after losing?" said Kou, looking lost. Rei adjusted his glasses again.

"That is easy, Kou-san," he replied, now sounding more self-assured. "It was simply an excellent display of sportsmanship. I expected nothing less from a professional!"

"Is that so?" said Kou, her eyes narrowing as Rei hummed and straightened himself with a smug smirk. "Then what would you call what my brother did when he actually attended a professional swimming school for years, _Rei-kun…?_"

"_Aaahh!_" yelped Rei, nearly dropping his brush in protest at Kou's protective sisterly glare. "No offense intended to Rin-senpai, no offense whatsoever! But, I mean… what else would it have been but a polite gesture from one sporting athlete to another?"

"I don't know… but it just doesn't seem like how my brother used to be," sighed Kou, lowering her head. "I wish he could go back to being his old self again. He was so excited to swim with you guys, and so happy when you all won…"

"I'm sorry, Kou-san," whispered Rei, not knowing what else to say to her and she closed her eyes, her features hardening in resolve.

"You still need one more member, right, Rei-kun?"

"Ah, that's right," came the confused reply and Kou clenched her fists, turning to Rei with flashing eyes.

"_Please let me join!_"

"Kou-san?!" yelped Rei, nearly dropping his brush again. Kou composed herself quickly, exchanging her look of thunder for a gentle smile.

"You're the only ones who can help my brother," she said softly, looking up at Rei. "If you're willing to have me, I can serve as your manager and help you out!"

"Ooh, ooh! What's going on?" Nagisa called out to them when he caught Kou's excited tone and Rei turned back to him, lifting his hands to his mouth to shout,

"Kou-san has offered to join the Iwatobi Swim Club as our manager!"

"What? Really?!" cried Nagisa in reply and jumped to his feet in joy, leaving Haruka crouched by the wall. "That means the swim club is officially open for business! Yaaay!"

Haru said nothing, but had they looked, they would have seen him smile to himself for a fleeting moment, very sensible of how excited everyone was to swim together at last. More importantly, he too was one step closer to the water with four members, and that sufficed for momentary happiness.

* * *

Practice at Samezuka Academy was almost over for that day when the door to the indoor pool area opened and in stepped the now infamous Matsuoka Rin, leaning casually against the wall to watch the swim team complete their final laps. Captain Mikoshiba didn't notice him at first, far too busy shouting at the currently timed second-year to pick up the pace, but Nitori spotted the visitor quickly and the moment he discerned whom he was looking at, his strangled gasp finally alerted Seijuurou as well. Neither was looking at the others anymore when the second-year's hands hit the wall at last, and when Nakagawa came up for air and asked for his time, he asked in vain: Seijuurou didn't even hear him and Nitori had quite forgotten to pause his stopwatch.

"That's it for today, men! Hit the showers!" shouted Captain Mikoshiba, never taking his eyes off the much-anticipated brother who showed none of the courtesy or pleasantness of his lovely sister. He lingered by the door for a while longer, staring at the others with his arms folded over his chest as though he expected the captain to walk over to him, but when Seijuurou merely shouted at him to "State your business!" and blocked Nitori's path with a hand to detain him from running over to the haughty stranger, Rin at last pushed himself away from the wall and slowly approached them, his expression almost hostile. The closer he drew to them, the more Nitori fiddled with his stopwatch until he nearly dropped it. Rin gave him a look and then fixed his eyes on the captain, locking him in a stare that Seijuurou withstood with ease.

"Buchou," was all Rin said when he finally got within arm's reach, sinking a hand into his pocket. Mikoshiba quirked an eyebrow that arched steeper when he was presented with a piece of paper that he was obliged to unfold himself. Nitori quickly inched behind the captain, his cheeks growing hotter every second.

"You wanted to see me," added Rin as Mikoshiba perused the note and recognized the initials of the diligent first-year who had fulfilled his obligations and earned the promised arrangement Mikoshiba hoped none of them would regret. He slowly lowered his arm, held out the note behind his back for Nitori to take and cracked a smirk, more at the prospect of soon having good news to relay to Gou-kun than from any gladness of having obtained the sulky wildcard for his team.

"I did. Come with me," he said and the two soon left for the lounge, leaving Nitori to the furious beat of his heart and the slight tremble of his hand, his fingers curled reverently around the note that had brought them his Senpai.


	10. Episode 02: Part 5

Ever since his mother's move from the family house, Haruka's parents had called their son every Sunday to inquire about his week, hoping to find him in good health and receive news of accomplishments befitting an exceptionally smart young man like himself. While they were always gratified in the former, the latter had rarely brought them little more than disappointment; Haruka's collection of awards had not grown since his abrupt decision to quit the Iwatobi Swimming Club at age thirteen, and he had engaged in nothing notable or even different for years. Close to his seventeenth birthday with little but former childhood glory to recommend him to the world, they would have settled for any scrap of good news, a few scattered somethings instead of Haruka's constant answer of _Nothing, the usual, everything is fine – _little did they know that their son had been carefully censoring himself since their phone call on the day of the opening ceremony. Afraid of his parents' reaction to his faculty summons and too conflicted about Tachibana's appearance, not to mention Rin's reappearance, Haruka held his breath and said _Nothing_ as usual. There really was nothing to impart of his first school week to his faraway elders except grievances and afflictions that were better buried in some frostbitten cavern of his heart. Until…

"Have you and your friends made any progress on the pool?" asked his mother over the phone two weeks after the establishment of the Iwatobi Swim Club, of which Haruka had spoken little in their previous call except mentioning the other members and what they were required to do in order to have anywhere to practice.

"Yeah, we cleared out the weed," replied Haruka, holding the phone to his ear as he fiddled with his dinner on the stove. "We might finish work by the end of next week."

"That's wonderful, Haruka! You will finally have somewhere to swim with your friends, maybe even enter a tournament after all these years… of course, you won't be able to swim until June, I hope you realize that. Spring is much too cold to swim outdoors."

Haruka's face scrunched up in an annoyed pout.

"You sound just like Tachibana," he said, glaring absently at his dinner as he scraped the sides of the pot and gave his rice a rough stir. There was a pause at the end of the line.

"Tachibana? Tachibana who?"

The spatula clanked hard against the pot and Haruka bit his lip, glad nobody could see the way his cheeks colored in… in what?

Embarrassment?

_Guilt?_

"Haruka?"

"…Just a guy from class."

"Oh? You've never mentioned him before, Haruka. Is he your friend? Is he in the swim club?"

Haru lowered his eyes, one hand tightening on the handle of the pot.

"No. No, he's not."

"Well, he sounds very sensible at any rate," said his mother to break the silence. "Don't swim in the pool until June. They probably won't fill it until then anyway."

"I won't. …Good night."

"Good night, Haruka. Please take care of yourself."

"I will," said Haru and quickly pressed End Call, his eyes drifting to the pot again. He fished a pair of chopsticks out of the drawer and began plucking clump after clump of rice straight out of the pot, scolding himself for his carelessness and wondering, if only faintly and with more unease than hope, whether Tachibana ever mentioned him to his family at home. Haruka prayed he did not. After all… what was there to even say about him..?

_Nanase Haruka, a guy with a girly name. Still unable to take care of himself. Eats and cooks mackerel. A garbage man in his free time… and always, "always like this."_

* * *

_His name is Nanase Haruka. Finally I'm not the only guy with a girly name..! He didn't bring any lunch so I gave him some of mine. Yes, I'll have some, thank you. No.. he doesn't seem to have any friends in class. Nobody came over to his desk during breaks, nobody at all. It's weird because he looked like he was feeling unwell, but nobody asked him if he was alright or needed anything. I don't get it. The girls told me he's a genius, and a reliable guy. He sounds like a good person, but it looks like nobody really cares about him.. It's kind of sad, but.. if he really __**is**__ lonely in class… perhaps he won't mind if I talk to him sometimes…_

_Ama-chan-sensei came over to Nanase-kun's desk and told him he was expected at the Faculty Office. I'm not sure why though, she didn't say. Nanase-kun brought lunch today. I'm glad.. I worried at first that maybe he can't afford lunch..! He brought mackerel. I asked him if he wanted to have lunch together but he was in a hurry. Maybe some other time. I sat with him in Art class today and you should have seen him draw! He's really talented._

_No… we didn't really speak today. Please excuse me…_

_No. I think.. I think I embarrassed Nanase-kun. It's no good.. Perhaps I'd better leave him alone. Please excuse me.. . ._

_You will never believe what happened! Haru, Nanase-kun I mean, he gave me fish and rice for the sandwich I gave him on Monday! I told him he didn't have to give me anything but he insisted. It was really good! …I saw his friends, too, two first-years. I ran into them on Wednesday. At the, the Faculty Office, when.. ah, it's not important anymore. Haru, Nanase-kun, I think he's nicer than the others give him credit for. I hope we can be friends..! . .._

_Guess what? They formed a swim club! Haru, I mean, and his two friends, the first-years. There's a pool they need to fix, though. I guess it's around here somewhere, I'll go up to the roof tomorrow and take a look, maybe it's nearby. Haru started working on it and his hands were all green by sixth period. …Mom? Do we have any spare rubber gloves at home..?_

_I saw the pool today! Yeah, it's on school grounds, not too far from the building. Haru was there gathering weed and trash during lunch time. I think I'll keep the gloves in my desk, just in case. I've never seen Haru so excited about anything before. It must mean a lot to him… I hope he'll get to swim with his friends soon. I guess that would be in June at the earliest, though… It's too cold to swim outdoors in spring._

* * *

And on went Makoto from day to day, week to week, always bringing home some small but nonetheless interesting trivia of Nanase "Haru" Haruka and speaking of him with greater warmth and enthusiasm than any attempt at friendship had ever given him cause before. Fortunately for him, he could not have asked for more attentive listeners than his parents and little siblings. While Makoto tackled every year with renewed optimism, the four of them awaited each new start with dread that the beloved son or brother might once again find himself rejected and alone, unable to connect to others who had little need of someone whose affections and attachment ran deeper than any feelings he had ever managed to excite. Each time he found himself among new peers, Makoto always opened up and yet no one cared to peer inside, and when his own gaze pierced through mere cracks in others with fond readiness, the shells around him clamped shut quickly and he was pushed away, or worse, kept at a short distance where he felt neither needed nor unwanted: a lukewarm, wretched stalemate where he was fine as long as he wasn't _too much._

The first few days were always spent in wait. Navigating a new environment and mapping the temperament of others required silence and patience, which came quite easily to an observer like Makoto. It was the nature of his first conflicts, his peers' initial reactions to his ways and gestures that were critical and truly decided what sort of year lay before him: sitting quietly so he would not be sanctioned, or clinging desperately to every shred of interaction in the hopes that his persistence might be rewarded. He hardly knew which version pained him or his family more; they were in alternation like the seasons, and just like the seasons themselves, his relations never truly altered once their pace was set. He almost seemed the reverse of his neighbor in class: while Nanase Haruka sat by his window staring idly at a world he wanted nothing to do with, Tachibana Makoto was hopelessly chasing a world that wanted nothing to do with him.

And so when he retired to his room too soon that first Wednesday, his family began to suspect that Nanase Haruka's shell had closed despite Makoto's every attempt to show him kindness, and come Thursday, the twins put aside tomorrow's project to draw Onii-chan something cheerful for his bulletin board and his mother abandoned her dinner plans to run to the shop and get everything for a last-minute green curry. Makoto wiped his eyes, thanked them, and ate as much as his lack of appetite allowed – there was nothing he would not have done for those who loved him so much, and when his siblings' arts and crafts project for Friday fell apart the moment they tried to carry it downstairs, Makoto stayed behind and helped them fix it at the cost of arriving late to first period. Punctuality could hardly matter when your little brother was in tears and your little sister begged you for help; nobody needed him at school and everyone had need of him at home.

Once he dropped off his siblings and their reassembled project (carried carefully by Onii-chan all the way to keep it intact), he hugged them and ran off to school, and the twins waved after him with scrunched up faces, wishing Onii-chan didn't have to go. He was to pick them up after school and they were fully prepared to love him senseless should he betray any sign of sadness… and then were profoundly and pleasantly surprised when Onii-chan ran to them with his brightest smile and the plastic container he was given by "Haru". The twins squealed with delight, hugged and kissed him, and begged for some of the fish because it smelled delicious; and his parents sighed in relief once Makoto came home and talked a great deal with rekindled cheerfulness. They agreed to send Haruka some mochi as a token of their thanks and on Monday evening, Makoto was presented with an unopened packet of brand new rubber gloves by his mother, along with the kind promise of something extra for every lunch thereafter if it might help "Haru" become the close friend he'd been wanting for so long.

The process was slow but steady and Makoto seemed a little happier every day. He might not have been able to spend as much time with Haru as he would have liked, but the extra lunches and those rubber gloves ensured that he still played a small and indirect yet consequential part in the Iwatobi Swim Club's efforts. That much was enough to keep Makoto's spirits soaring high, and just as the last week of April had begun, he found himself in the happy position of being able to inform his family at dinner that going by Haru's words and what he had seen from the roof, all restoration work had been completed on the pool.

"That's wonderful news," said his mother as she put the finishing touches on their dessert. "Sounds like they will soon get to swim again."

"Yeah, though I suppose they still have a lot of work to do," replied Makoto with a smile.

"Onii-chan, when are you going to bring Haru over?" asked Ran.

"Bring him over, Onii-chan! We want to see him!" pleaded Ren, both of them positively dying by now to get a glimpse of their older brother's only friend and a potential playmate for anything from board games to playing house. The twins tended to bicker about who would get to play whom in the latter, but of one thing they were certain: "Haru" would be allowed to do anything he liked short of marrying Onii-chan, who had long been reserved by both siblings with equally fervent claims to Makoto as the only perfect person in the world. Their older brother chuckled fondly, not knowing half of the plans revolving around him and his favorite classmate.

"It's not that easy, else I would have brought him over already, but I'll do that the moment Haru tells me he wants to come," promised Makoto.

"_Aaaah!_ That's mine!" whined Ren the next moment; while he was busy paying attention to Onii-chan, he was beaten to the last piece of ham by his sister. "Don't take it!"

"You never finish your food," snapped Ran, turning her head up sharply at him in a way that reminded Makoto of Haru.

"I always eat my ham!" pleaded her brother, almost in tears by the time Makoto moved in to break up the argument.

"Come on! Stop fighting," he chided them, his words followed by sheepish silence. "Here," he said to Ren next, plucking up some meat from his own plate. "You can have some of mine."

The moment he gave either of them anything, the other of course had to be included and so Ran immediately begged him, "Onii-chan, I want some too!"

"There you go," said Makoto, letting her have his last bit of ham. Their father chuckled.

"Say, Makoto," he said, turning to his son, "You never did tell us if they were just water-enthusiasts or competitive swimmers."

"I honestly don't know," replied Makoto, scratching his chin in thought, "But I suppose they must have been swimming competitively before if they are going through so much trouble to fix the pool…"

"It _is_ the only place they would be able to swim unless you count the ocean," mused his father. "While they were younger and it was open, they might have gone to the Iwatobi Swimming Club in town. Remember that place? You had your swimming lessons there when you were six. The newspaper says it's going to be torn down by the end of this week."

"Really..?"

"Here, look," his father said, showing him the short announcement on page four. "They started this afternoon. If they work hard enough, it'll be gone in a day or two."

The thought gave Makoto pause. The Swimming Club held no pleasant memories to him, none that he could immediately recall, but the idea of a younger Haru who might have gone there often tugged at tender strings. He took a deep breath and his face turned strangely solemn as he said,

"I think I will go for a walk and see it one more time."

"Alright. Don't be late."

"Can we come?" asked Ran, perking up. Makoto shook his head. The twins booed in chorus.

"This is something I would like to do on my own," he said gently as he tugged on his jacket and soon passed through the front door without another sound.

* * *

The Swimming Club was some twenty minutes away and Makoto went on foot, shivering in the evening wind and feeling colder still when he saw how pitiful the building looked, its sides already torn open by the claws and wrecking balls of heavy machinery parked side by side their defenseless prey. The solitary demise of the once happy structure rendered him speechless and still. Did Haru really swim here when he was younger? Makoto could not be sure but something deep inside told him he did. _Was Haru happy here?_ Those swimming lessons seemed like they were ages ago…

"Hurts, right?"

Makoto reeled and turned around as an older voice called out to him not too far away. His eyes fell on a pizza delivery scooter, its driver staring up at the Swimming Club with his helmet still strapped into place.

"It's not easy to watch your memories being destroyed. Were you a member of this club? Well, you can't go against the times. It's sad," mused the man uninterrupted while Makoto searched for an appropriate response.

"I wasn't a member of the Swimming Club myself," he said at last to be truthful, "but I did learn how to swim here and I think my friend used to come here a long time ago."

"Did he? I was a coach here once," replied the man. "They called me Coach 'Demon' Sasabe. What's your friend's name? I might have known him."

"Haru.. Nanase Haruka."

"Oh, Haruka!" laughed the man. "Ah, I remember him. He used to come all the time. He had quite a group forming around him. Do you know the others, too? Rin and the rest?"

"I think some of them go to our school," replied Makoto, feeling a little more at ease. "I've never spoken to the first-years who now run the swim club at school with Haru, but I've seen them around. One is short and blond and the other has blue hair and wears glasses."

"That's them, Hazuki Nagisa and Ryuugazaki Rei. Ha ha, Rei was my favorite. I had never seen a kid before who sank to the bottom of the pool like a brick whenever he was swimming anything except butterfly. Butterfly of all things! An advanced stroke, he wasn't going to start that until later, but that was what I ended up having to teach him so he could stay afloat at all. I bet it's still the only stroke he swims. And Nagisa, he was tiny compared to them but the biggest braggart you've ever seen. You couldn't shut him up once he got going. A good kid, though. He worked his butt off trying to keep up with them. Do you know Rin, too? Matsuoka Rin? He and Haruka were great rivals."

"No… I guess he doesn't go to Iwatobi High School with everyone else."

"From what I've heard, he's come back from Australia and goes to high school somewhere around here. He went to study abroad when he was twelve and I've only seen him once since then, a year later. Has Haruka never mentioned it? I was closing down this place for the end of the year when they showed up that one time. Apparently, they ran into each other while Rin was back home."

"You said they were rivals… did they have a race, then?"

"Haruka hasn't talked about it at all, huh? It must be a painful memory. They did race and Haruka won easily. Rin was pretty upset about it. Can't blame him. He went to a swimming school abroad and it didn't make a difference… He was so distraught he said he was going to quit swimming for good. That was the last time I've seen either of them swim. Haruka didn't come back to the club afterwards or attended any tournaments since."

Makoto fell silent, his shoulders hunched under the weight of Coach Sasabe's words. Was that why they didn't form a swim club at school until now when the pool was right there all along? Did the others even know what happened and how it might have affected Haru? Would it make a difference now that they were going to swim again – what if they ended up running into Rin at tournaments?

_What then? Will you be alright, Haru…?_

"Is something wrong?" asked Sasabe. Tachibana lifted his head and turned back to him, forcing a light smile.

"No… It was nice to meet you. I'm Makoto by the way, Tachibana Makoto."

"Nice talking to you, Makoto. Tell those boys to take good care of themselves. And to practice hard! They are talented kids. Doesn't make sense to let that talent go to waste."

"I will. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," said Coach Sasabe, and a minute later, he and his pizza delivery scooter disappeared around the corner. Makoto was now free to go yet stood there a moment longer, turning his head to look at that sad, crumbling building one more time, a place where Haru used to be happy until another boy lashed out and clawed him in the heart.

_Is that why you push everyone away, Haru..? _thought Makoto with a sharp pang in his chest, and locked within the walls of his small bathroom, Haruka's heart gave a sudden, painful leap. He lowered his head and curled his fingers to give the smiling dolphin figure in his tub a flick on the nose, and lying in bed at his newly assigned Samezuka dorm room, Rin's face twitched as though he had been stung. Captain Mikoshiba's conquest had been successful – when he stated his terms, including the room Matsuoka was expected to share with another member at the "swimmers-only" dorm, Rin pleasantly surprised him by silent acceptance of every condition laid before him, perfectly ready now to start training in earnest and put the memory of Nanase Haruka behind him once and for all.

* * *

Makoto decided to keep his discovery to himself, letting Haru continue what his friend supposed was a form of self-healing: heading over to the pool every day to finish up so the club could finally open its doors. Everyone was still busy cleaning up the changing rooms and doing some last-minute sweeping of the pool's bottom, but on Friday morning, Haruka received his invitation from Amakata-sensei to come to the pool after school (and _only_ then) for the private opening ceremony of the Iwatobi Swim Club, and having grown quite used to talking by now, he graciously shared the news with Tachibana.

"Is everything ready, then?" asked the guy, smiling widely. Haruka hummed. "Will there be a grand opening?"

"No," replied Haru, recalling his advisor's words. "Just the five of us after school."

"I see. Haru.."

"Hm?"

"Congratulations!" said Tachibana, flashing him one of those warm, affectionate smiles and Haruka paused, unsure if he felt accomplished so much as tired and impatient to get in the water that still wasn't there. The thought pulled his mouth into a frown.

"Maybe they will fill the pool for the occasion… though it would still be too cold to swim," mused Tachibana as though he could guess Haru's thoughts, causing him to color and turn his head. Tachibana laughed. Haruka had been turning his head quite often these days and sometimes wondered if Tachibana could see through him the way he could decipher poetry, casually reading between the flat lines of his eyebrows or the corners of his lips.

When it was finally time for Haruka to leave, he stayed behind just a moment longer, letting everyone else hurry home for the weekend. It was easier that way.

"Tachibana," he said to the guy, still refusing to call him Makoto out of stubborn hope that somehow they might eventually revert to last name basis as they ought to properly call one another, being guys with girly names.

"Yes, Haru?"

His chances were almost in the negatives at this point, however. Haruka bit his lip.

"I won't need the rubber gloves anymore," he said quietly, pointing to Tachibana's desk. The other looked up at him with his eyebrows slightly raised, but quickly broke into a smile that told Haruka he was understood and his intentions appreciated.

"Good. I'm glad," replied Tachibana in a soothing voice and tension slowly left Haruka's shoulders, his arms hanging loosely by his sides. "Now hurry up or you'll be late for the ceremony! I'll see you on Monday."

Haruka nodded, pulled his backpack over his shoulder and started towards the door.

"And Haru..!"

He skidded to a halt in the doorway, glancing back with a small frown. Tachibana cocked his head.

"Have a good weekend!"

Haruka's lips twitched and he stared back at him, no longer looking quite so annoyed. He hummed and a moment later he was gone, running for the pool as Tachibana gathered his things to head up to the roof.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Amakata Miho handed out drinks to the four of them gathering around her: Haruka, Nagisa, Rei and Kou. Once everyone received their plastic cups full of ice tea, they raised them to the sky with excited smiles, or in Haru's case, something resembling anticipation.

"Okay. Here's to the establishment of the new swim club!" said Amakata-sensei and they clinked their cups together.

"Cheers!" said everyone, even Haru in a quiet voice, taking a sip of his tea.

"It's not warm enough to start swimming," explained Amakata-sensei as she motioned beyond their circle, "but we filled the pool as a test run."

Haruka dared not look before, more inclined to listen to his mother's pessimism than Tachibana's gentle optimism, but the moment Amakata-sensei gave him reason to turn his head, his eyes flashed as they caught the serene rippling of the surface, what was undeniably clear, gorgeous water. _How did Tachibana know…?_

"All that's left is to toss these in together," continued their advisor, handing out one purifying tablet per person so they could gather by the sides of the pool, throwing or flicking their respective tablets into the water.

"There!" cried Nagisa, turning to Rei with a grin. "The swim club is finally ready to go!"

"The pool looks so beautiful now…" sighed Rei with a serene smile. "Even if the temperature is not optimal yet for swim— H-Haruka-senpai! What are you doing?!"

Haruka had since begun tossing his clothes aside and Kou's eyes widened as nothing remained but bare skin and a swimsuit (for pessimism be damned, there was still a glimmer of hope within him), her hands clasped together in delight.

"I can't get enough of those triceps!" she sighed, completely absorbed in the view. Rei glared at her in stern disapproval but whatever he tried to say was drowned out in a splash as Haru dove in, draping himself across the surface like one would roll onto smooth, soft grass.

"Haruka-senpai, the temperature is not optimal!" Rei shouted in vain.

"Oh dear," said Nagisa, sounding no more worried than if Haruka had simply stuck his hand into the water instead of diving in. "I don't see a problem, though. He looks comfortable enough."

"Hah. That's true…" spoke Kou, looking amused until she studied him a little more carefully. "Wait! His lips are turning purple!"

"Haruka-senpai, as vice-captain I must insist _you leave the pool_ _at once!_" shrieked Rei, to which Haru merely turned to his stomach and slithered further inward.

"Go, Haru-chan!" Nagisa spurred him, laughing harder when Kou ran off and reappeared with a cleaning net that proved no help in fishing Haruka out of the water, while some distance away stuck helplessly on the roof, Tachibana was completely exasperated by their futile attempts to catch the renegade swimmer.

"Haruu, what are you doing?!" he cried over the railing, quite forgetting that nobody could hear him over there and anyone might hear him on the roof. "Get out of the pool, it's too cold to swim in April! And what are you all standing around for, get him out of there already! Augh.. he's going to catch a cold… _Haruuu..!_"

_**TO BE CONTINUED…**_


	11. Episode 03: Part 1

Haruka stayed in the pool for almost ten minutes, continuously pleaded by Rei and egged on by Nagisa until Amakata-sensei had enough and threatened him with so much classical literature homework he would have to skip practice for the rest of the year. Rei and Nagisa immediately joined forces to warn Haruka against defying their ironfisted advisor and the captain finally yielded, less threatened by the thought of having to make up wild interpretations about the color green than by the idea that, should he catch a cold, Tachibana would fret over his recklessness for the entirety of next week. He hadn't been sick yet and thus had no experience to support his theory, but he was absolutely certain it would be so and wanted to avoid being fussed over by the guy at all costs. He hurried to the changing rooms and the renovated showers were put to their proper use for the first time in years, dousing him with hot water to counteract immersing himself in a cold pool for longer than his swim club deemed good for him.

Unfortunately for Haruka, hot water wasn't enough, not nearly enough for someone with a history of pneumonia at age twelve that nearly ruined his health and their chances of swimming a relay before Rin left for Australia. He made the foolish mistake of trying to retrieve a classmate's scarf that had fallen into the river, and when he slipped and tumbled in, everyone froze from shock, wasting precious minutes as they stood there not knowing what to do. Haruka lay at the mercy of the icy water for longer than he could bear without serious consequences and had to be taken to hospital, where he spent two weeks constantly reprimanded for his lethal thoughtlessness. _You're supposed to be a genius, Haruka, so why would you do something this stupid?! What possessed you?!_ his mother scolded him in tears at the hospital, as if performing well on tests were the same as caving in and doing what seemed to be expected of you even if you would have rather given it up. Haruka turned his head away from her then, and the memory of his mother's voice made him turn his head the same way on Saturday morning, struggling with a 39°C fever that drenched his body in cold sweat and made him toss restlessly in bed all day. He had just enough strength to get himself water to drink, cook some rice he had no stomach to eat, and soak in the tub for hours in search of comfort that was gone once the moment he crawled out and toweled himself dry. His parents called again that afternoon and he told them he was just taking a nap, struggling to hold back his sneezes lest he give himself away. They talked a while and his mother hung up unsuspecting, or so Haru wished to believe, and he was left alone with the heavy realization that should his sickness be severe and last long, he would waste Nagisa and Rei's efforts in more ways than one. Worse, he was going to miss class. _Tachibana will be worried sick._ Having known each other for almost a month, Monday would have been the first time they would be apart on a school day. Tachibana talked to no one else now, _not unless they spoke to him first, anyway…_

He shook his head. The guy was sixteen years old and Haruka had never known anyone as capable and enduring as Tachibana. He could take care of himself for a few days and it wasn't as though Haru couldn't do without him…

* * *

Sunday was just as dreary as Saturday and Haruka's fever stayed while his willingness to do anything about it gradually dwindled to nothing. When Nagisa and Rei paid him a visit in the afternoon, unannounced as always, Haru opened the door in nothing but a shirt and shorts and crawled back into his blanket nest in the living room as soon as Nagisa and Rei stepped inside. The two offered their services at once – "Does he need medicine?" "He should drink some tea!" "Let's get him soup!" – but Haruka resisted, telling them that the biggest favor they could do for him was to go home and let him rest. On this point, however, the two parties never saw eye to eye and Nagisa left for the kitchen to make tea while Rei suggested a variety of medications Haruka didn't care for, having trusted in natural remedies all his life. His shivering and sneezes left Rei unconvinced of the healing power of honey and ginger tea, however.

"Hhh… Kshh!"

"That was loud," noted Nagisa, helping himself to some of the tea he had just made. Rei stared intently at Haruka, waiting for him to get a tissue but Haru shrugged his shoulders, too lazy to stand up and look for some. The way he snorted and rubbed his nose made Rei's skin crawl.

"Are you going to be alright, Haruka-senpai…?" he asked as he quickly fixed his eyes on a vase at random, convinced that the answer would be, could _only_ be no. Haru made a face.

"It's nothing. My late grandma used to say that you sneeze when someone else is talking about you," he said, rubbing his nose vigorously.

"It must be Rin-chan!" said Nagisa. Haruka stared up at him.

"I am certain this is mere superstition, so stop encouraging him, Nagisa-kun! Can't you see he has come down with a debilitating illness?"

"Stop patronizing m-hhHH KSHH!"

"You are _ill,_ Haruka-senpai, don't even try to argue with someone who can clearly tell the symptoms of a common cold," harped Rei, folding his arms over his chest. Haru tensed under the blankets. Would he have to put up with the same thing tomorrow…?

"I'm fine," he insisted, drawing the covers just a bit tighter over himself. "I'll be well enough by Monday."

"I don't know, Haru-chan," said Nagisa, taking another sip of tea. "I think you should take it easy and rest until your fever is gone. It might be a day or two, or even a whole week, but that can't be helped. You can't rush these things, you know.."

"I'm not staying the whole week, I c-khh… KSHHH!"

"Yes you are, Haruka-senpai, if that's what it takes to regain your health! As vice-captain, I insist you take time off to rest and recover."

"As _captain_, I will decide what to do," said Haru, turning his head archly.

"What if we promise to go to your class and bring back notes for you?" offered Nagisa.

"Forget it," said Haruka a little too quickly, dreading the idea of Nagisa and Rei needlessly bothering or worrying Tachibana – or water forbid, bringing him back here to see Haruka pathetic and alone, lying helplessly in bed like a baby.

"Come on, Haru-chan… we won't look for your friend, we'll just ask someone at random!"

"No need."

"Will your friend get notes for you, then?" asked Nagisa. Haru bit his lip and bit it hard. "You know, Haru-chan, we could just tickle the information out of you right now…"

"I feel conflicted about taking advantage of an invalid, Nagisa-kun…" muttered Rei. Haruka sighed.

"Fine, I'll stay home until I feel better, so enough already."

Nagisa and Rei exchanged glances and the compromise was silently accepted. Haruka had never seemed worried about attendance or been enthusiastic about any subject he had ever taken; there was little reason to suppose he wouldn't stay at home when he had a legitimate excuse to do so.

"Oh, by the way, Haru-chan, we heard from Kou-chan that Rin-chan joined the Samezuka swim team," said Nagisa, finally bringing up the subject that had brought him and Rei to Haruka's house in the first place. Kou received the good news that very afternoon from Mikoshiba Seijuurou, whose enthusiastic e-mail was accepted with great cordiality except on one point: fueled by her relative success with Rei and Nagisa, Kou put her foot down and insisted the captain never use 'Gou' and 'kun' together ever again. She then texted Nagisa and Rei on Saturday after a reasonably long wait that brought nothing from the older brother in question, not even a reply to her cautious messages. Seijuurou at least had done her the favor of hitting a search engine to better understand her request and promptly slapping himself in the face for having inadvertently done the young lady an injurious disservice. His next e-mail read, typed in great haste, _Terribly sorry, Gou-san! Please tell me if there is anything I can do for you! I am at your service! Yours, S._

"We figured that if Rin-senpai has joined, it is probable that he would eventually enter tournaments on behalf of Samezuka Academy," added Rei.

"Yup! So we should enter tournaments, too!" said Nagisa, grinning widely. "Then we can do relays again...!"

"I only swim freestyle," replied Haruka, cocooning himself just a bit more.

"What does that even mean, Haru-chan? Does that mean you can't swim relays?" whined Nagisa, flopping down by Haru's blanket-wrapped body to press his head against the other's back. "Don't say that! Come on…"

"Besides, we can't swim a relay with three people," said Haru as Nagisa kept nudging him like a little billy goat.

"That's true, Nagisa-kun… I'm afraid we are one person short of _any_ relay…" said Rei in a small voice. Nagisa lifted his head, eyes wide in horror.

"Does that mean we have to find one more member?!"

"Seems so."

"Haru-chan, ask your friend to join!" pleaded Nagisa but Haru merely shook his head, drawing a growl from Rei.

"Haruka-senpai, why are you so stubborn about this? We are not exactly overrun with willing candidates! Have you even asked anyone from your class?!"

"Do it for the team, Haru-chan!"

"_For the Team_ was Rin's motto, not mine," said Haruka, turning his head sharply away from them.

"You are _**impossible**_, Haruka-senpai!" screeched Rei, tearing at his hair, and Haru decided then and there never to ask Tachibana just for being so needlessly harangued on his sickbed by the obnoxious vice-captain and his loudmouth treasurer.

* * *

Nagisa and Rei left shortly after to let Haruka get himself something to eat and then go back to resting, and with an hour-long detour to the bathtub, he proceeded to do just that. His fever raged on relentlessly and every inch of him was worn to the bone by the sudden visit that brought nothing but irritation and dubious news about Rin. It was to be expected and Haruka knew what he had signed up for, but even thinking of getting involved with Rin again was enough to exhaust him completely. he was fast asleep by nine, not wanting to think of how Tachibana would feel tomorrow morning upon realizing he would have to manage without Haru for the rest of the day. _He can take care of himself for just one day_, fumed Haruka under his blankets. _I'm not his keeper.._

He woke up early enough for a normal day but ridiculously early for a sick day that left him lying on his futon for several hours with nothing to do but pray for his fever to go away. It was parked at 38.7°C and refused to budge, leaving his joints stiff with discomfort that no amount of recreational bathing could wash away. When he could finally will himself to move, he lurched into the kitchen and ate yesterday's cold rice, unable to stop wondering what Tachibana had for lunch, if he brought onigiri or fried squid wrapped in newspaper from some friendly old lady he sometimes passed on his way from home (though where that was, he never said and Haruka made a point never to ask him). He wished uselessly for anything but cold rice and empty silence, and when he thought of how he had never minded silence before, Haru had to conclude with no small amount of bitterness that Tachibana had quite spoiled him.

Haruka spent six more slow-dragging hours in uneasy half-sleep and lucid dreams, squirming under his covers until a particularly nasty sequence startled him awake. By the time he pinched himself unmistakably awake, he could no longer recall what it was, but the way it clutched and wrenched his heart was more than enough to convince Haruka that he had stayed at home long enough. He got off the futon, forced down the rest of the rice for dinner and packed his schoolbag, taking a long bath before he crawled upstairs and lay down in his own bed for the first time in three days. There was no more food at home and all his efforts to rest were useless; he would rather go to school and endure Tachibana than… _than this_. He almost looked forward to sitting behind his desk being yelled at by teachers and fussed over by the guy in that warm voice that always sounded like it was half asleep, so low and soft it could have put Haruka to sleep. When Haru closed his eyes, he could sometimes conjure up that voice and pull it on like a puppet, holding one-sided conversations in his mind. He laid his head on the pillow, shivering without his blankets but too tired to fetch them. What would Tachibana say if he saw him now?_ Good evening, Haru. You're sick? You shouldn't have gone into the pool in April, didn't I tell you the water would be too cold? I hope you won't do that again. It's lonely in class without you.. There's no one I can talk to. Please get well soon, Haru.. …It's mochi. I'm __not sure if you like sweet things, but.. You don't have to give me anything in return.. . have a good weekend.. Haru. . . ._

* * *

_Haru.. . Haru, you'll be late for class…_

_..Haru!_

Haruka gasped awake and checked his alarm clock, only to drop it back onto the nightstand with a groan. It was almost eleven in the morning – classes had long begun and by the time he would get there, it would be lunch break and he might as well wait until it was time for sixth period, but going through all the trouble for just one class sounded so asinine it made him give up before he could even begin to consider the possibilities. To think he even packed his schoolbag but forgot to set an alarm… _It's Tachibana's fault,_ he thought with a scowl; it was his stupid voice that put Haruka to sleep and made him miss a whole day of classes. His fever begged to differ as the bigger culprit but Haruka stubbornly refused to acknowledge it even as it threatened to climb higher again, for what upset him even more and beyond all reason was that his sleep had been sound and mostly dreamless. That voice somehow lulled him into the deepest chasms of his unconsciousness and flicked him off like a switch, and Haruka felt better rested despite his illness than he had in days, even weeks.

Now his meager energies were in danger of being wasted, but Haruka resisted. He took a bath, checked his cupboards and found one last tin of pineapple in juice that soon joined a small tail end of mackerel on the grill plate. Mackerel never failed him and he ate with more enthusiasm than the day before, but once he was full and lay down, he was tackled again by fever, burning so intensely it shackled Haruka to his futon. He spent the rest of the day unbearably conscious of his misery and regretted to the last moment he hadn't set an alarm and went to school like he had planned. Tachibana would be unbearable tomorrow… unless he too had been seized by something while Haru wasn't there. Haruka pursed his lips. _He had better be there._

He had no strength to go upstairs and fetch his alarm clock before fatigue claimed him for the night, but by some kind gesture of fate, he woke up earlier than he usually would for school and accepted it as a good omen. He took a long bath and then hurried to scrape together some leftovers for an unappealing but sufficient lunch, stuffing the twin bentos into his backpack that seemed to be full and waiting for him – holding yesterday's books. Haru sighed and emptied it, repacking with today's course load and tugging on his uniform. His fever clocked at 37.9°C, a mere one-degree difference Haruka ignored as best he could. It didn't seem to interfere with his bicycle ride to school: if anything, the cool breeze soothed his burning skin.

When he entered the classroom, Tachibana whipped up his head and stared at him in surprise and what appeared to be genuine relief, never taking his eyes off Haruka as he started heading for his seat. Neighboring classmates asked if he was alright and he told them he was fine, trying not to stare back at Tachibana as he quickly walked over and sank into his chair in the corner. He expected obnoxious cheerfulness but the other's features slowly darkened in concern. Was his condition really showing that much..?

"You're sick, aren't you, Haru?" Tachibana said in a strange, quivering voice, those upturned eyebrows creasing so pitifully it made Haru turn his head.

"I'm fine."

"I hope you are," said Tachibana, still unable to take his eyes off Haruka. "You don't look well at all. You're very pale, Haru.."

"Stop worrying so much," muttered Haru, his ears red but his cheeks white as parchment. "Class is about to start and I told you, I'm fine."

_I'm fine_, he told himself too as he was slowly coming down with fever-induced dizziness. _I'm fine_, he insisted as the lines of his textbook blurred beyond legibility. _I'm fine_, he pleaded as he tried to prop his head up… and said nothing when his arms finally slipped and Haru collapsed on his desk, unaware that Tachibana was shaking him, _Haru.. __**Haruka…!**_

* * *

"He's still not awake.. is anyone coming for him?"

"His records say his parents live abroad and he has no other relations listed."

"…I volunteer to take him home, Sensei. I just need his address."

"It's a long way on foot, Tachibana. It would be too much for you to take him on your own like that. If your homeroom teacher volunteers to drive you, I will allow it."

"Eh? But I teach class in half an hour..!"

"Please, Ama-chan-sensei…"

_Stop talking… let me sleep,_ rebelled some spark of consciousness inside Haruka, buried deep within a dark, heavy space where he lay blind and seized by entropy as those blurry voices talked over him. They didn't listen, but eventually they stopped of their own accord and Haru sank deeper, feeling nothing when his limp, sleeping form was carefully lifted into his friend's arms. Makoto cradled him to his chest and carried him out of the nurse's office all the way to Ama-chan-sensei's tiny pink car, setting Haru down gingerly on one side and slipping in on the other to keep the poor sufferer in place.

Even though she promised to drive them all the way to Haruka's house, Amakata Miho had no choice but to stop near the foot of the stone stairs with no readily traversable roads leading upwards. To anyone smaller than Haruka himself, it would have been a near-impossible quest, but being a good deal larger and used to a pair of clinging siblings, Makoto considered it little more than a necessary inconvenience.

"Well, here we are," said their teacher with a smile. "Are you sure you can take it from here, Tachibana-kun?"

Makoto nodded, his tongue peeking out slightly as he searched Haruka's backpack for his keys.

"Of course. Thank you very much," he replied the moment he had found and pocketed them, strapping Haruka's backpack onto his chest before lifting out Haruka, who ended up draped over Makoto's shoulders. Amakata-sensei waved to them and sped off, no doubt trying to make it back to class on time, and Makoto began his slow but steady climb upward, stopping regularly to catch his breath under the weight.

There were only two keys that qualified for the front door. When the first one clicked immediately, the door was pulled open just enough for Makoto to sneak their bulk through the entrance, and he soon found himself in a living room littered with cups, tissues and the ruins of Haruka's blanket mound that seemed less inviting the more Makoto looked at it. He sighed and began carrying Haru and their backpacks around, trying to find a better place to set him down, and once he exhausted all possibilities on the ground floor, he hauled him upstairs where he finally found Haruka's bedroom. Its owner was gently laid on the bed, his tie, jacket and shoes gingerly removed to make him more comfortable. _At least the air is better here than it was downstairs_, thought Makoto as he set down the backpacks and took off his own larger jacket to drape it over Haruka's thin frame.

Determined to be of service, Makoto hurried downstairs and opened some windows and the terrace door to make a breeze. The tissues were bagged and carried out into the outdoor trashcan he passed on the way inside, and when he returned, he gathered every cup and dirty dish into the sink, dousing them in hot water to let them soak. After some hesitation, Makoto also did a check-up and discovered there was virtually no food in the fridge or the cupboards. He sighed and quickly scribbled a message onto a slip of paper, placing it on the living room table: _I'll be back soon. —Makoto_

He ran all the way home and back, having reluctantly taken Haruka's keys, but he needn't have worried so much: the paper was still there and Haru was sleeping soundly upstairs, shivering just a bit. Makoto adjusted his jacket on Haruka's shoulders and hurried down again to check the futon in the living room, picking the two cleanest blankets to stay and taking the rest upstairs to the washing machine. A quick search yielded clean sheets elsewhere that went to replace the one on the futon, now serviceable again with a blanket to spare. Makoto's jacket was soon switched for the extra blanket, carefully tucked around his friend to keep him warm, and once he washed all the dishes and exhausted his usefulness for the present, Makoto settled down on the floor to start his homework.

* * *

It was past five in the afternoon when Haruka began to stir, opening his eyes and screwing them shut the moment they fell upon Tachibana lying on the bedroom floor absorbed in a text book. He allowed himself a small peek, still hoping it was just a dream, but when the apparition made audible, discernible noise scribbling something with a pen, Haruka finally shot a glare at him.

"Oi," he said, his eyes narrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, you're awake," said Tachibana, leaving his text book behind to come and sit on the floor by Haruka's bed. "You scared us, Haru.. You passed out during forth period so we took you home."

"…_We?_" asked Haruka wide-eyed, expecting the worst.

"Ama-chan-sensei agreed to drive us both," explained Tachibana and Haru sighed, all too glad Nagisa and Rei weren't involved. "I promised I would stay with you, so here I am."

"You didn't have to," said Haru, nestling deeper into his blanket. "I'm fine."

"You've been saying that all morning," groaned Tachibana, shooting him a look. "Coming to school with a fever… why would you do that, Haru..?"

"I felt fine this morning," Haru lied through his teeth. No wonder he slipped up over the phone – Tachibana sounded just like his mother now.

"You could have stayed at home until you felt better," scolded the mother hen, but his voice grew gentler with every word. "I took notes and was going to give them to you when you were finally back," he added, reaching for his backpack to dig out and hold up a neat stack of individual sheets with material and home assignments noted for each class. Haru rolled his eyes in growing embarrassment.

"I mean, I was very glad to see you," said Tachibana quietly as he set down the notes and scooted back, "..but I'd rather you stayed home where you could rest properly."

Haru's eyes widened but he quickly turned his head, making a face.

"I had enough of resting at home," he said sharply.

"I suppose it _is_ pretty lonely…" risked Tachibana in a soft voice that made Haruka turn back, their eyes meeting again. "I know it's only been two days, but it was really quiet without you, Haru."

"You mean _you_ were quiet," muttered Haru and Tachibana laughed, his smile so bright it lit up the whole room.

"True.." he replied, scratching his cheek with a finger. Haruka squinted at him. "Oh well. It won't be for long."

"I'll be fine tomorrow," said Haru, his fingers idly wringing the blanket.

"You've been excused for the rest of the week," Tachibana informed him with an apologetic look. "The nurse examined you and said you needed at least three more days. It'll be the weekend by then."

"Fine. You've gotten rid of me," said Haru archly, rolling over to turn his back on Tachibana. The guy laughed again. Did he laugh just the same for everybody..?

"Haru…" Haruka opened one eye to peek back at him. "What if I came by every day after school until you felt better? I have to bring you class notes anyway and then you wouldn't have to be by yourself all day. I can stay as little or as long as you like… I don't mind, Haru."

Haru's brow twitched, his face scrunched up for a moment. Did he want him to come? Wasn't it grand to just lie here in absolute silence for entire days without him…?

"Do what you want," he ended up saying, glaring down the wall by his bed. "But don't expect me to entertain you. I'm_ not well_."

"Of course not," replied Tachibana and Haru could almost hear him grin. _What was so funny?_ "You just rest, Haru."

Haruka sighed, slowly turning back to him. "What time is it?"

Makoto checked his watch. "Five twenty-eight."

"You've been here since fourth period..?"

"Fifth period, technically."

"Isn't your family worried?" asked Haruka, quirking a brow. Tachibana flashed him a soothing smile.

"I left them a message letting them know I might be late. I also brought you lunch. Well… dinner by now, I guess."

Haru's eyes widened again. "You didn't have to.." he muttered, rolling his head back.

"It's alright. We had plenty so nobody's going to miss it. Is rice and squid okay? You seem to like mackerel best but I couldn't find any—"

"Rice and squid are fine," said Haru, his cheeks coloring. He sighed and slowly sat up in bed, finally noticing his jacket and tie had been draped neatly over the back of his chair. "I'll eat some now."

"Alright," replied Tachibana, gathering his schoolbag and coursework to follow him downstairs where Haruka stopped abruptly in the kitchen doorway, staring down two containers of cooked food sitting beside several packets, tins, bottles and a large box of tissues on the counter.

"What are those..?" he pointed at them, eyeing the other suspiciously. Tachibana shrugged and broke into a sheepish smile.

"I thought you could use more of everything until you were well enough, so I brought some things.." he admitted, drawing another sigh from Haruka. "That way you won't have to go out to buy groceries. It's a long way down to the stores, it would be really tiring to climb all those stairs when you're not feeling well."

"You worry too much," said Haruka, his voice thick. He lowered his head. "I'll heat up the food."

"Need any help?"

"It's fine. You should go home now," said Haru, tying on his grandmother's tattered old apron. "I can take care of myself."

"Are you sure you'll be okay? Your fever was really high…" said Tachibana, lifting a hand instinctively to press his fingers against Haru's forehead. Haruka tensed and glared at him, brushing his hand away.

"I said I was fine. Go home," he said, his pout so childish it made Tachibana grin. "And stop laughing at everything. You're annoying."

"Says the guy who turns his head every minute," teased Tachibana and Haru shot him a look of betrayal so acute it nearly made him laugh in earnest. "Not that I mind…"

"_Good bye,_" said Haru pointedly, spooning cold rice into the frying pan so he wouldn't have to look at him again. He could already feel his ears turn red but just hearing Tachibana hum knowingly made them color more.

"Good night, Haru," came the good-natured reply and the door soon closed behind Tachibana who had turned the keys, placed them on the entrance hall counter and let himself out for the third time that day, leaving Haruka to wonder what was burning worse: his rice and squid in the frying pan or his flushed cheeks at 38.2°C.

* * *

Haru laid down right after dinner, and after a night of heavy sweating under his blanket, he woke up the next morning with no more than a temperature of 37.8°C and the fatigue of having lain in bed too much in the past few days. No crippling headaches followed him as he left for the bathroom and once he took a bath, he felt well enough to change into a shirt and sweatpants instead of staying in his pajamas. He loaded them into the washing machine along with the blankets and sheets Tachibana left for him in the washing room, made his bed and cleaned up the dishes from last night, taking out the rest of the rice and squid to heat up for lunch. He even checked Tachibana's notes about class work and marked everything in his course books to do in the afternoon, telling himself it was no use starting when Tachibana might come and interrupt him any minute.

And come he did, not long after sixth period. He arrived with a new set of notes and a small container of mochi that Haru reluctantly accepted and allowed Tachibana to sit down so they could share it. As they ate, Tachibana filled him in on everything he missed and Haru listened in silence, humming or nodding as the other went on. It was the same gentle stream of recent weeks, that easy flow of conversation Haruka had grown quite used to, and before he knew it, he and Tachibana were sitting close and poring over the notes the guy had written, Haru asking questions and Tachibana patiently explaining everything to the smallest detail. As they continued to decipher the notes together, more and more of Tachibana's course books ended up on the table until it became so crowded the empty container was forced to make way, and within ten minutes, the two of them were doing homework side by side, Tachibana preparing for Friday and Haruka still catching up on Monday. They still sat close, but not uncomfortably so; they were silent now, but it was a casual, tolerable silence. _Nagisa and Rei could never, ever be this quiet,_ Haru thought to himself whenever he glanced over to Tachibana erasing typos from his English homework or perusing biology diagrams with his lips moving slightly as he went. Haruka sighed and turned his head away, forcing his attention back to geography and history. Afternoon turned into evening by the time they finished and Haruka quickly sent the guy home, too tired to cook a proper meal for two and telling himself with more bitterness yet that he had imposed upon Tachibana long enough.

The next day, Haruka felt a little better again. He washed the rest of his clothes, wiped down the counters and took out the trash, and come lunch time, he made tea and prepared the packet of ramen he was brought on Wednesday. Tachibana soon turned up as expected and brought a bar of chocolate that Haruka didn't really care for but tried a small piece of just to be polite. Tachibana ate the rest over homework, or rather within five minutes of starting coursework if it even lasted that long.

"Shall I come again tomorrow, Haru?" he asked just as he had been dismissed for dinner. Haruka pursed his lips, hesitating longer than he ought.

"I feel much better," he said at last, not looking the other in the eye. "You can stay at home with your family."

"Alright. Though, just in case… do you have a phone? I'll give you my number so you can call me if you need anything."

Haruka paused and turned his head just slightly.

"That's okay," he said, coloring a little. "I'll be fine."

Tachibana gave him an amused look and took out a piece of paper, scribbling his number down and reaching it out for Haru to take, who pinched it up with a small, annoyed frown.

"You don't have to call me if you don't want to. It's for emergencies, then," said Tachibana, cocking his head to the side. "Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," replied Haru, his face deadpan. "Go already, you'll be late."

"Haha, alright. Feel better soon, Haru. And have a good weekend," said the other, still smiling. Haruka lowered his head.

"You too," he said and quickly closed the door, not knowing what else to tell someone who willingly spent the better part of three days bringing him food and taking care of his workload – or rather _how_ to say it without giving in to the idea that this was slowly and irreversibly becoming a friendship.


End file.
